'The first ever conference about a ballerina.' Alastair Macaulay, whose brainchild it was, introduced an audience of around 150 people to the two and a half days of films, talk, and demonstrations, all focussed on the phenomenon that was Margot Fonteyn. Macaulay and his committee had gathered what will probably remain a unique collection of Fonteyn's

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colleagues, who had worked with her from her earliest days at Sadler's Wells through to the last year of her life, as well as friends from within and without the ballet world. It was a packed weekend, and rather than try to describe it chronologically, I've divided it into the different types of session, with a section at the end describing some of my own outstanding impressions. It's not possible to describe everything that happened, so I've just picked out what seemed to me the most interesting. Although the quality was slightly uneven, overall it was a fascinating event and I think left everyone with a deeper appreciation of our prima ballerina assoluta.

Films

The very first session, on Friday night, came close to overshadowing the whole conference. I'd heard about, and longed to see,a film in the collection of the New York Public Library: a compilation of the Sadler's Wells Ballet's Sleeping Beauty, shot at live performances in America in the early 1950's by a fan called Victor Jessen, who smuggled a camera in and spent years fitting together bits from different nights until he had the whole thing. The Aurora at every performance was Fonteyn, but almost all the other roles had different interpreters - so not only did we see Beryl Grey as the Lilac Fairy in her Prologue solo, but later on there were a few glimpses of Svetlana Beriosova as well; and the second Fairy started as Pamela May and ended as Julia Farron. (Pamela May was in the audience, and said she'd never seen herself dance before.) As well as Fonteyn, it was a thrill to see such dancers as Violetta Elvin, Nadia Nerina, Alexander Grant - and even Kenneth MacMillan. The film will go back to New York with added value, as those in the audience who danced with the company in those days were asked to identify the dancers - though even they were defeated by Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat. Robert Helpmann made brief appearances, to kiss Aurora awake and at the curtain calls - for some reason we didn't get Act ll, where he partnered Fonteyn, and in Act lll he was replaced by Michael Somes - much younger and handsomer than we usually see him on film!

Margot Fonteyn during rehearsals for ‘Margueite and Armand’ in 1963
from an original Michael Peto print

It's interesting, of course, to compare with what we see today. There are minor differences in the choreography, and the mime seemed much more dramatic than what we're used to: above all the performance was alive. The greatest treat, though, was to see Fonteyn's Aurora when she was at the height of her powers. Later in the conference we were shown a number of films of her taken in the 60s, and it was fascinating to compare what remained the same and what had changed over the years. I think everyone would really have like to have watched the Jesson film over again on the last day, to apply to it some of what we'd heard and seen in between.

Reminiscence

There were four sessions where a panel of five or six talked about what they remembered of Fonteyn, or how they had felt the effect of her in their own careers. The speakers ranged from Leo Kersley, who saw her at Sadler's Wells in the 30s, through to Darcey Bussell who was briefly coached by her in Swan lake, taking in on the way almost a roll call of the Royal Ballet's finest - May, Grey, Sibley, Seymour, Wall - as well as some like Richard Alston and Carolyn Brown (long time Cunningham star) from outside the confines of classical ballet.

Every one of them spoke of the inspiration Fonteyn had given them, whether it was from a couple of evenings spent as a Court Lady watching the Rose Adagio or from a lifetime of working on stage beside her. Almost all of what we heard (and this was true of the whole conference) related to her time with the Royal Ballet, so it was particularly interesting to hear Desmond Kelly and David Wall talking about partnering her on long one-night-stand tours of America in the 70s - a side of her dancing life which is much less well known but which probably gave many thousands of people their only glimpse of her art.

Demonstrations

Scattered through the weekend was a series of lecture demonstrations, in which some of today's dancers were coached in roles particularly associated with Fonteyn. Probably most effective purely as a piece of coaching was Desmond Kelly's session on the Act lll pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty, with Belinda Hatley and Bruce Sansom. Kelly claimed he'd had difficulty in thinking of anything useful to say, but watching a film of himself partnering Fonteyn had in fact reminded him of so much of how she achieved her effect that half an hour wasn't nearly long enough. It was quite remarkable to see how some apparently trivial suggestion could transform Hatley's performance (and of course she's pretty good to start with!): "Take a breath, then lift your arms en couronne" - and an ordinary pose became a statement of regal classicism, as evidenced by a sigh of content from the audience and a broad smile of pleasure from Hatley.

A positive result of the conference before it even started had come from another demonstration: Nicola Katrak (fondly remembered from her Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet days) coaching Anita Hutchins, from the RBS, in the solo Ashton created for Fonteyn in Le Baiser de la Fée. Gailene Stock, RBS Principal, had seen them rehearsing and decided that in future every girl in the top class will learn this solo, to give them more experience of the Ashton style. Katrak is a lovely teacher, getting her points across in the gentlest possible way but insisting on the importance of every detail.

Most exciting, for me, were the sessions involving two of Fonteyn's greatest creations: Chloe and Ondine. Antoinette Sibley worked with Sarah Wildor on Chloe's two great solos, with - another thrill - interventions from Pauline Clayden, who was the second cast Chloe and the only one other than Fonteyn to dance the role until Merle Park and Sibley herself. The next day Anthony Dowell came to coach Wildor and Adam Cooper in the pas de deux from the second scene of Ondine - starting with a memory of the days when he was one of the 4 boys who apparently form a 'human mattress' for Ondine to land on when she's thrown overboard in the ship scene - if they got it wrong Fonteyn left them in no doubt, and 'the evening was...um...spoiled'.

Lectures

The lecture programme consisted of 7 talks, but two pairs were given simultaneously, so no-one got to hear them all. By the time we got to the second day, some of these lectures provided a welcome addition of hard fact to the reminiscences: for instance a talk on 'Fonteyn and the English Style' by Richard Glasstone. After a quite hard-hitting introduction regretting the 'globalisation of technique', he went on to discuss Fonteyn's actual technique, talking for instance of the glory of her 'balanced line', and ended by showing us two video clips of the end of Act ll of Swan Lake - first as done by Fonteyn, then by Makarova, who in comparison was doing a version of the steps that might kindly be described as 'impressionistic'.

The surprise was Sir Frederick Holliday, who was Vice Chancellor of Durham University when Fonteyn was Chancellor. I'd been expecting, I must confess, to find this rather dull - but far from it: not only did it illuminate another unknown facet of Fonteyn's life, but it also had half the audience in tears. He spoke most movingly of the work she did for the University and of the effect her serious interest and devotion had on everyone who met her, even new graduates who got 5 seconds of her concentrated attention and a handshake at their degree ceremony. The effectiveness of this talk - and some of the others - came from the immediacy provided by his personal memories of Fonteyn, and showed the importance of holding a conference like this whilst there are still so many people who can speak from direct knowledge.

I enjoyed one of the optional lectures partly because it was one of the few to deal at any length with her partnership with Nureyev. Although I was very happy that this period of her life didn't dominate the conference, it in fact received remarkably little attention and it was good to hear James Neufeld, a Professor of English Literature from Ontario, applying his definitions of romanticism and classicism not only to Fontyen's dancing but also to the dynamics of the famous partnership.

Lasting impressions

There was a lot to take in in a short time, and outside the formal sessions there were many conversations in the tea breaks with new and old friends. Fortunately there is to be a book containing all the proceedings of the conference - and a bit more too: Lynn Seymour, for instance, had prepared a much longer memoir than there was time for her to read, and all of that will appear in the book.

Some of my own personal memories:

• Leo Kersley telling how the galleryites called Fonteyn 'the Glow worm' because wherever she was on stage, and whatever she was doing, she shone out;
• Clayden, Sibley and Wildor all in a row trying to work out the details of one of Chloe's solos;
• David Wall describing how, on one particularly exhausting tour, Fonteyn hired an ambulance to take them from Seattle to Vancouver so they could sleep on the journey;
• Desmond Kelly's description of how Fonteyn's melting gaze would make him weak at the knees - not helpful as he was supposed to be partnering her at the time;
• and above all, so many images of Fonteyn herself.

There were things I would have like to have heard more about, other speakers I might have chosen to take part, and one or two sessions that didn't add much to the picture; but overall it was a weekend of great interest, and not a little emotion. If there was one overwhelming message that came out of it, it was how greatly Fonteyn was loved, and how fortunate we were to live in an age when we could see such a phenomenon for ourselves.

The conference was hosted by the RAD, at their headquarters in Battersea. Alastair Macaulay and David Watchman were co-chairmen, and the conference was organised by Kay Hardiman. Lead Sponsor was Ricki Gail Conway.