Les Sylphides, Margot Fonteyn, and me
The other day I was watching a video about Margot Fonteyn, the most famous British ballet dancer of the mid-twentieth century. The video featured a few seconds of her dancing in Fokine’s Les Sylphides. It was a role I immediately recognized, because at the age of fourteen I had danced that exact role in a summer arts camp. Same choreography, pretty much the same everything, except that of course I was nowhere – and I mean nowhere – near as good as Fonteyn.
The dance was the section of the ballet called the Prelude. The choreography requires the dancer to express the idea of listening to the music and being inspired by it. I actually have a photo of myself in the role, and I thought it would be fun to try to take a screenshot of Fonteyn at the same moment in the piece. Here’s the result:
And here I am at fourteen:
Here’s the whole segment of Fonteyn in that part of the ballet, which I later found on YouTube. I think it’s very lovely and captures a great deal of her special subtle quality:
Very cool to capture that moment in the ballet.
Neo, you look charming! Margot isn’t too bad either.
I had never really appreciated the Art of Ballet until you featured it on this space. Thank you for that.
Margot’s footwork is incredible, and she has a very soothing grace to her movements.
I have wondered, is there notation for the choreography? How is it passed from one dancer to another?
neo:
Deeply touched by your teen ballet photos. Reinforces my understanding of your passion for ballet.
When I was a teen I wanted to be a great surfer. You probably got further with ballet. Whatever. It marks one.
I still go weak at the knees seeing a wonderful photo or video of a great ride.
Here’s one I can’t comprehend:
–“RIDING GIANTS -= Laird Hamilton”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcaZarxilJQ
OldAv8r:
There is notation but it doesn’t contain the important nuances and most dancers don’t read it. Of course, there are videos too. But dances – especially the details and finer points of artistry – are ordinarily passed the traditional way, from older dancer to younger dancer, in person.
Re: Notation
I recall a Music Major friend explaining the difficulties of transcribing Jimi Hendrix to standard notation.
No guitarist learns Jimi that way.
neo:
Thank you. I think that the “old ways”, in this case, are best.
This guy doesn’t get ballet, I suppose it’s charming
Neat the freeze frame match
This is beautiful Neo. Thank you.
Thank you Neo… just beautiful.. And now as an old grand-pa, I treasure the moments watching my grand-daughter at the same age dancing with our local ballet company… and I still remember Fonteyn and Nurayev dancing with the San Francisco Ballet back in the day.. she was just stunning!
A lot of the magic is in what Dame Margot does with her arms and hands.
tcrosse:
The footwork in this dance is extremely simple. The beauty and difficulty of the dance is almost 100% upper body and expression – in other words, artistry.
Thanks for posting this.
What arts camp did you attend?–Not, by any chance, Interlochen in Michigan? (My husband went there for years in the 50s/60s; our daughter was there for five consecutive summers in the Aughts, and I really enjoyed being there at the end of camp for the performances … !) I should add that I was lucky enough to see Fonteyn on stage several times in the 1970s (in Nureyev and Friends concerts–think “Marguerite and Armand”–so I saw him, too!). Once I was walking in NYC, probably on Central Park South near all those fancy hotels, and there I was on the sidewalk, face to face with Dame Margot, who’d just come out of a limo. I was speechless; I assume I gazed at her with adoration as well as amazement; I remember that she smiled so kindly and graciously–wordlessly acknowledging me. Lovely person.