Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes

[rg]

i suppose those more familiar than i am with such historic photos of British ballet will find this picture familiar.

it wasn't familiar to me when it caught my eye.

the pose is arranged delicately but quite distinctly.

i wonder if the photographer or the dancers were in charge of the 'shoot' and thus the pose, or maybe Fonteyn's and Somes' great mentor, Frederick Ashton.

[Drew]

The lighting in the photo is just beautiful.

[dirac]

What a beautiful picture. Thank you for posting it. It does look familiar but I can't put my finger on it.

I can't believe those wigs male dancers used to wear. Thank heaven for Nureyev.

[bart]

Fonteyn is beautiful. Much more human -- "womanly," as one once might have said -- than you often see in photos of Odette.

But what is Soames doing or trying to project? She looks entirely comfortable and natural in her pose. He seems to have been snapped before he was ready.