Ruth Leon recommends… Margot – Tony Palmer

Margot – Tony Palmer
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This riveting documentary begins conventionally, as the biography of Margot Fonteyn.  The documentary-maker, Tony Palmer, has a history of making sensational arts films so I was expecting some revelations but not this.  Tony Palmer interviewed those who knew Fonteyn best, her fellow Royal Ballet dancers, choreographers and administrators, her personal assistants, even her mother, and what emerges is the story of how the most famous dancer that England has ever produced was deceived and betrayed by those closest to her.

It’s about a little girl called Peggy Hookham, brought up in Shanghai, who told her mother she would one day become the greatest dancer in the world and achieved beyond her dreams. It also exposes how, despite being almost unable to walk, Dame Margot Fonteyn was still performing at the age of 67 and died penniless and exploited.

It’s not an easy watch for those of us who love ballet and who have always thought of her as the epitome of classical perfection. She was, as this film shows in excerpt after excerpt of her exquisite placement, her musicality, her unshakeable technique and her extraordinary dance intelligence, but at what a cost.

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