Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE, was an English ballerina. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the company by Queen Elizabeth II...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDancer
Date of Birth18 May 1919
advice alike art life mediocrity pretension sort
Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike
thinking artist long
I think perhaps I've learned to be myself. I have a theory that all artists who would be important - painters and writers - must learn to be themselves. It takes a very long time.
athlete artist dancing
Dancers are both athletes and artists.
dance art people
Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.
running age wanted
I have never wanted to live to be old, so old I'd run out of friends or money.
magic genius inexplicable
Genius is another word for magic.
daughter mother age
The essential thing about mothers is that one needs to know that they are there, particularly at that age when, paradoxically, one is trying so hard to break away from parental influence.
perfect found partners
I’ve found the perfect partner.
remains continents oneself
...wherever one is, some part of oneself remains on another continent.
real doors people
... when I left the stage door and sought my orientation among real people I was in a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world.
dance taken dancing
Dancing was something to be taken very seriously when engaged in and otherwise put out of mind.
world sometimes wilderness
Life offstage has sometimes been a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world.
dance firsts moments
Minor things can become moments of great revelation when encountered for the first time
dance civilization special
The world of dance is a natural world from which civilization has divorced many of us by making it appear remote - something reserved for the few who have a special talent.