[Dame Margot Fonteyn, the Royal Ballet and Rudolf Nureyev.] Indexed volume from the editorial office of the magazine 'Ballet Today', containing reviews and photographs of Fonteyn, some with Nureyev, with typed and manuscript annotation.

Author: 
'[Dame Margot Fonteyn, the Royal Ballet and Rudolf Nureyev] Ballet Today', London dance magazine, founded by P. W. Manchesterr [Janet Sinclair]
Publication details: 
'Ballet Today', London. Between 1954 and 1970.
£400.00
SKU: 20925

Ballet Today was a monthly magazine founded in 1946 by Phyllis Winifred Manchester (1907-1998). In 1951 Manchester settled in New York, leaving four colleagues, one of whom was Janet Sinclair (c.1922-1999), in joint charge of the magazine. The present item is a volume from the editorial office of 'Ballet Today', containing numerous cuttings of photographs and reviews from the magazine, with typed captions and manuscript annotations, also a few photographic prints, laid down over 104pp., 4to, of a scrapbook bound in green cloth. The volume contains a large number of photographs and reviews of Fonteyn in various roles and productions, together with six pages of material relating to Nureyev. In fair condition, aged and worn, with evidence of the removal of a few items. The aim of the volume was clearly as a finding aid to facilitate research and the republication of photographs in subsequent issues, as evidence by such typed notes as 'no block available of this Petit ballet | only pictures | review appears on page' and 'there is another block available of Fonteyn and Somes in arabesque'. (Throughout the volume numbers are given for photographic blocks and the boxes containing them.) Typed label on front cover: 'Editor's scrapbook of photographs and reviews of various ballets and places where they were performed by DAME MARGOT FONTEYN and some with Nureyev'. Among other matter on the front pastedown is a manuscript note: 'INDEX see end of book | Ballets are indexed under titles | There is also an index of photos taken in different cities', and laid down in the volume are two typed indexes, on a total of five 4to leaves. The first is a page listing the material relating to Nureyev; the second is four pages listing photographs of Fonteyn, with details of ballets, locations and partners. Not all the material relates to the ballet; for example material relating to Fonteyn's marriage, a photograph with Jaqueline and Robert Kennedy, another 'at the airport beginning of 1961 tour and a curtain call in Moscow' and one 'with Bulganin and Kruschev in London'. Tipped-in at the end of the volume is a manuscript leaf with a page of entries relating to Fonteyn's meeting with Yugoslav leader Marshal Tito. Throughout the volume are manuscript annotations, together with typed ones on green and purple slips, such as: 'Block No.28(a) Stage shot of Peter Clegg as the Blackamoor Fonteyn as Ballerina and Alexander Grant as Petrushka | Block No.28 Fonteyn and Grant | Block No.43 Fonteyn | all photos published in May 1957 issue'.