Margot Fonteyn

Bronze statute of Dame Margot Fonteyn

Photograph by Ian Yarham,
Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike licence 2.0

Source Wikipedia

Peggy Hookham was born this day in Reigate exactly 96 years ago. She is of course better known as Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, prima ballerina assoluta and probably one pf the greatest dancers of all time. I won't attempt a biography. There are plenty around as well as her own autobiography. For those who want to research her life and career the Wikipedia article provides a good starting point.

I shall confine myself to some personal memories. Although I saw her on television many times as I was growing up I did not see her on stage until I went to university. This was in the late 1960s and early 1970s when she was entering her fifties. One of the roles that I saw her dance was Juliet in Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet from which a remarkable film was made. You can still see on YouTube. I saw her in most of the other great classical roles as I was a Young Friend of Covent Garden and practically lived at the House in the Christmas, Easter and first part of the Summer vacations between 1969 and 1972.

My last memory of Fonteyn was not on the stage but in the Great Hall of Lincoln's Inn. She had been invited to dine with the benchers on Grand Day. This is an occasion when prominent individuals in public life visit the Inn. Usually the benchers and their guests enter and leave the hall in silence. After their name is read out they are greeted with a bow which they usually reciprocate. But when Dame Margot left the Hall there was an explosion of applause as though she had danced Odette-Odile. Her smile will remain with me to my dying day.

From Bar to Barre

Although I have been a balletomane for over half a century I have always known my limitations when it comes to ballet.   I make my living from the law and even as a child that was my aspiration though I loved my trips to Covent Garden, the Colosseum and the Wells .

"What do the Bar and ballet have in common?"   I hear you say,   "More than one might suppose" is my reply.

For a start both ballet dancers and barristers perform in costume,  We wear wigs and gowns and they wear whatever the part demands.


We're also neighbours.   The Royal Opera House is just across Kingsway.   In fact, I discovered Lincoln's Inn while looking for a parking space near Covent Garden one matinee.   Sadlers Wells is just up the road from Gray's while the Peacock is on our door step.

They say that barristers are actors manqués but look how they perform in court.  The exaggerated courtesy to the judge - "May it please your Lordship" and opponents - "my learned friend" - remind me of the flourishes of the courtiers in Act 1 of Swan Lake.   A rough cross-examination reminds me of the denunciation of Albrecht in Giselle  and sadly can have similar consequences.

Like ballet the Bar is a very competitive profession.   You have to be good to get into chambers - any chambers - in the same way that you have to be good to get into a company - any company.

Both professions have their stars - ballerinas and premier danseurs nobles in ballet - and silks or Queen's Counsel in the law.

Despite having much in common the two professions seldom come together.   There are very few ballets that have a role for a lawyer.   At the top of my head I can only think of the attorney at the end of the last act in Fille tearing up Simone's settlement.   One occasion when the two worlds did meet is when Margot Fonteyn was a guest at Grand Night in Lincoln's Inn.   Normally the Bar and Students bow as each bencher exits Hall but Fonteyn's exit was marked with thunderous applause.   That was the first and only time something like that has ever happened in my recollection.   And Fonteyn rewarded us with her smile - the same smile that I had seen so many times on stage.