Margot Fonteyn was born in Reigate, Surrey, England 1919, as Margaret Hookham. Her Brazilian/Irish mother groomed her for stardom from almost as soon as she could walk. When she was aged 8 her father's work took the family to Shanghai. Peggy and her Mother returned to the UK when she was 14. Her father stayed in Shanghai and was interned by the Japanese for the duration of the war. Young Peggy was enrolled with the Royal Ballet School just when they were looking for a young British dancer to groom as the new Prima Ballerina. Until then all leading dancers in Britain had been Russian or French. Part of the grooming process was to change her name to 'Margot Fonteyn' (qv). By 1940 Fonteyn was prima ballerina of the Sadler's Wells Company. She soon showed the natural talents and dedication required of a Prima Ballerina and after many wonderful perfomances at Sadler's Wells she went with the Royal Ballet on their 1949 American tour. Her performance as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty on their opening night in NYC wowed the critics and fans alike. Her performance set a new standard for the role. Success followed success and she was soon to become the most famous and most successful ballerina in the world.

She had quick progress and in 1939 she had already danced Giselle, Odette-Odile and Aurora.  Margot Fonteyn was probably the most famous, most successful, and most loved ballerina in the second half of the 20th century. From 1935, she was Frederick Ashton's muse. She studied in London with the Russian teacher and dancer Seraphima Astafieva.  Margot Fonteyn caused a sensation in her 1949 American debut in the Sadler’s Wells Ballet production of “The Sleeping Beauty.” Now, her costume and pointe shoes from that magical evening are on display at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, in the exhibition “Margot Fonteyn in America: A Celebration.”

She then fell for playboy Roberto "Tito" Arias, a former Panamanian ambassador in London, delegate to the U.N., and the son of a powerful Panamanian family that had fallen out of political favor. The couple were married at the Panamanian Consulate in Paris in February 1955. After marriage and recognition by the Crown for her important role in modern British ballet. Margot continued her successful career, she was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire in 1956, named Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias.

Tito planned an armed invasion of Panama City to try to win back some of the power he felt was rightfully his. Margot joined him but the invasion was a total failure. The world famous British ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn arrived to New York after spending 24 hours in a Panama City jail.  After intervention from the British Ambassador Sir Ian Henderson, Dame Margot was freed from prison at dawn and taken to Panama City's airport for a flight to the United States.   In a statement to the House of Commons in London, shadow foreign secretary Ernest Bevan welcomed her release. "The British public did not appreciate having seen her in the role of the swan, then seeing her in the role of a decoy duck," he said.

Panamanian police was hunting her husband, Dr. Roberto Arias, suspected of planning a coup against the government of President Ernesto de la Guardia.  She was mobbed by journalists at the airport. After trying to get through to her mother by phone, she agreed to talk to the press. The ballerina said she did not know where her husband was or even if he was safe. "Naturally I am concerned. Any woman who doesn't know where her husband is, is naturally concerned," she said.  She refused to answer questions about the situation in Panama but said she intended to return, saying "Of course, it's my husband's country."  

Three days later Roberto Arias took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Panama City. His small group of rebels made a failed attempt to invade Panama on 26 April. He lived for a short while in Rio de Janeiro before returning to Panama to fight the government by more legitimate means.  In 1964, after he won a seat in elections for Panama's National Assembly, a former political associate shot and crippled him. He was treated at Stoke Mandeville hospital in London and resumed his political career in Panama in January 1967.  His uncle Arnulfo Arias was president of Panama three times - in 1940, 1948, and 1968. In 1999 Arnulfo's widow, Mireya Moscoso, became Panama's first woman president.

In 1962 Margot was thinking of retirement (she was 43) from ballet when she met 'Rudolph Nureyev' who had fled from the Soviet Union to Britain. Young Rudi revitalized Margot and led to some of her most wonderful performances. Her partnership with Rudolf Nureyev brought worldwide acclaim and their most memorable performance was Romeo and Juliet and gave the world the magic of their great partnership and her career continued until she was 58.

In 1964, Tito was shot five times and from then he was paralyzed from the neck down. Margot flew to his side and from then on was his nurse as well as the wife, and she dedicated the rest of her life to him. It was mainly because of the money she needed to care for Tito that she kept dancing long after most dancers would have retired. She attracted some bad publicity by performing in apartheid South Africa and in the Chile run by the military dictators. She made her last appearance in public in May 1979 (aged 60) and retired to Panama where she and Tito ran a cattle stud. 

Fonteyn's dancing was characterized by technical proficiency and musical sensitivity. Her most famous role was Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. She also created roles in many ballets by the British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton. In 1954 she became president of the Royal Academy of Dancing, and in 1956 was made Dame of the British Empire. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Fonteyn performed regularly with Soviet-born dancer Rudolf Nureyev during his tenure with the Royal Ballet. In 1979 the Royal Ballet granted Fonteyn the rare title prima ballerina assoluta.

"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."  

"Life forms illogical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return? "  

"Life offstage has sometimes been a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world."

"Minor things can become moments of great revelation when encountered for the first time."

"Take your work seriously, but never yourself."

"The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous."