PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Tchaikovskys three ballet masterpieces are all rare studio performances from the 1950s, featuring the legendary Margot Fonteyn. Innately musical and technically perfect, Fonteyn was also a brilliant actress and is seen here at the height of her career with the celebrated Michael Somes, her dynamic partner during this creative period. Fonteyn and Somes were the perfect match in terms of physique, presence, style and technique. The selections from these three classic ballets demonstrate just how successful their partnership was. Fonteyn made her mark dancing Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, a role in which she and the Sadlers Wells Ballet made their American debut in 1949, ten years before this BBC studio production. All three performances are released here for the first time on DVD with the extracts from Swan Lake representing one of the earliest appearances of Fonteyn on film.

REVIEW
An important DVD of Margot Fonteyn's television performances during the 1950s.With Michael Somes, her partner for these years, we see her in the great pas de deux from Swan Lake in 1954, from the Nutcracker in 1958 and in parts of the Sleeping Beauty in 1959. These are exceptional testimony to Fonteyn's gifts: the timing of her faultless musicality, the vivid energy in her every action, and the ravishing decorum in her style-nothing done out of vanity; everything shaped to illuminate the dance itself-all tell of her unique artistry. --Financial Times,24/12/11