The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts > Exhibitions

Margot Fonteyn in America: A Celebration

From May 18, 2004 through September 3, 2004
Vincent Astor Gallery
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498 (directions)

Margot Fonteyn was probably the most famous, most successful, and most beloved ballerina in the second half of the 20th century. Her introduction to America came on October 9, 1949, when Sol Hurok presented the Sadler's Wells Ballet (later the Royal Ballet) at the Metropolitan Opera House, featuring Fonteyn in the role of Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. This exhibition, which includes costumes, haute couture, photographs, and film, takes the audience from the pointe shoes Fonteyn wore on that opening night to a stage heaped with flowers at the curtain call for her final Aurora in the United States -- and beyond.

Starting in 1935, Fonteyn served as Frederick Ashton’s muse, and he created major roles for her in his works. Her partnership with Rudolf Nureyev, which began in 1962, brought additional worldwide acclaim. They were perhaps most famous for their Romeo and Juliet. Some of Fonteyn's greatest roles, in such ballets as Swan Lake, The Firebird, Ondine, and Marguerite and Armand, are represented by costumes from the Royal Ballet Archives, and her personal elegance is expressed through her dresses, which are on loan from Yves St. Laurent.

This tribute to Fonteyn's art coincides with the international celebration of the Ashton Centennial, which will be a focus of the 2004 Lincoln Center Festival.

Press Release

Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 3.1 MB)