Bob Martin Photographer
0087 Margot Fonteyn
The magic moment - Dame Margot Fonteyn and Atillio Labis’ pas de deaux, a picture which the ballet publicists always insisted on using
An extremely heady start to my sojourn with the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT) in 1971 was photographing not only the ballet, Sleeping Beauty, with it’s wonderful choreography and hauntingly beautiful music by Tchaikovsky, but also photographing the one and only Dame Margot Fonteyn as prima ballerina.
I had long since photographed a full-length ballet, and consequently had – so I thought - a tendency to overshoot, little realising that this is, in fact, the norm when covering ballet “in the run”.
Margot’s magic was for me, mesmerising. Not only because she was who she was, but there really was such an aura of greatness about her, both on and off the stage. She was one of the most gracious ‘greats’ it was my privilege to work with; gentle, kind, ever polite and self-effacing. These qualities were, (and always will be) a hallmark of real ‘greatness.’ Indeed I’ve always found that all the ‘stars’ I ever photographed who were either rude, self-possessed, overly temperamental and demanding, were the ones who, in spite of their so-called celebrity status, were actually very unsure of themselves or just ‘fabulous frauds’ to quote Robert Lang.
Margot was not such a person. She was not only a dancer extraordinaire, but also genuinely warm and kind towards the principal dancers with whom she danced, the young, aspirant dancers in the corps-de ballet, and me.
She had her 54th birthday during the run of Sleeping Beauty and everybody in the company received a beautiful, gilt-edged, hand-written invitation to her party. I still have mine, which I treasure.
Both she and Atillio Labis, the amazing French dancer who was her partner on this occasion, were wonderfully co-operative as far as photographs were concerned. I needed to get some real “pictures” (not to be confused with mere photographs) a term for the magic moment in the choreographed divertissement of their pas de deaux. They couldn’t have been more accommodating or more patient with me and my infernal cameras!
I recently read her wonderful autobiography and remembered fondly my brief, but very warm, association with Dame Margot Fonteyn-De Arias. Sadly, no one is immortal, she died in 1999.
0087 Margot Fonteyn
The magic moment - Dame Margot Fonteyn and Atillio Labis’ pas de deaux, a picture which the ballet publicists always insisted on using
An extremely heady start to my sojourn with the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT) in 1971 was photographing not only the ballet, Sleeping Beauty, with it’s wonderful choreography and hauntingly beautiful music by Tchaikovsky, but also photographing the one and only Dame Margot Fonteyn as prima ballerina.
I had long since photographed a full-length ballet, and consequently had – so I thought - a tendency to overshoot, little realising that this is, in fact, the norm when covering ballet “in the run”.
Margot’s magic was for me, mesmerising. Not only because she was who she was, but there really was such an aura of greatness about her, both on and off the stage. She was one of the most gracious ‘greats’ it was my privilege to work with; gentle, kind, ever polite and self-effacing. These qualities were, (and always will be) a hallmark of real ‘greatness.’ Indeed I’ve always found that all the ‘stars’ I ever photographed who were either rude, self-possessed, overly temperamental and demanding, were the ones who, in spite of their so-called celebrity status, were actually very unsure of themselves or just ‘fabulous frauds’ to quote Robert Lang.
Margot was not such a person. She was not only a dancer extraordinaire, but also genuinely warm and kind towards the principal dancers with whom she danced, the young, aspirant dancers in the corps-de ballet, and me.
She had her 54th birthday during the run of Sleeping Beauty and everybody in the company received a beautiful, gilt-edged, hand-written invitation to her party. I still have mine, which I treasure.
Both she and Atillio Labis, the amazing French dancer who was her partner on this occasion, were wonderfully co-operative as far as photographs were concerned. I needed to get some real “pictures” (not to be confused with mere photographs) a term for the magic moment in the choreographed divertissement of their pas de deaux. They couldn’t have been more accommodating or more patient with me and my infernal cameras!
I recently read her wonderful autobiography and remembered fondly my brief, but very warm, association with Dame Margot Fonteyn-De Arias. Sadly, no one is immortal, she died in 1999.