Norma Fontenla (June 28, 1930 – October 10, 1971) was an Argentine prima ballerina.
Norma Fontenla (June 28, 1930 – October 10, 1971) was an Argentine prima ballerina.
Fontenla was born in 1930, and while still a child, began attending the National Conservatory of Music and Scenic Art, in Buenos Aires. She was later accepted into the dance school of the Colón Theatre, the nation's premier opera house. Fontenla was made part of the opera house's ballet company and was eventually named its prima ballerina. [1]
She joined the Rio de Janeiro Ballet in the early 1960s, and with them made her first European tours. Returning to Buenos Aires, she led the Colón Theatre Ballet in works such as Frédéric Chopin's Les Sylphides , Adolphe Adam's Giselle , Léo Delibes' Coppelia , and as Odette in Peter Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake . Her 1967 performance in Giselle was notable also for her collaboration with Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev. [1]
Fontenla performed in Paris in 1968 and in Santiago, Chile in 1969, where she opened the Municipal Theater's ballet season that year. She organized a tour of opera houses in the Argentine hinterland in 1970, and was invited to direct the ballet company in Milan's renowned La Scala. [2] Her previous collaboration with Nureyev earned the Colón Theatre his choosing that venue to perform Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker for the 1971 season. The success of the program was followed by a series of performances by Nureyev for Argentine television, alongside Fontenla and her primo ballerino, José Neglia. [1]
Fontenla, Neglia and seven other members of the ballet company boarded a flight at Jorge Newbery Airfield on October 10, 1971, en route to Trelew, a city in Patagonia where they were scheduled to perform. Shortly after takeoff, however, the twin-engine plane stalled, nose-diving into the Río de la Plata and killing all aboard. Their remains lay in state at the Colón, and on the first anniversary of the tragedy, a monument in their honor was unveiled on Lavalle Plaza (within steps of the opera house). [2]
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Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias DBE, known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn, was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed prima ballerina assoluta of the company by Queen Elizabeth II. Beginning ballet lessons at the age of four, she studied in England and China, where her father was transferred for his work. Her training in Shanghai was with George Goncharov, contributing to her continuing interest in Russian ballet. Returning to London at the age of 14, she was invited to join the Vic-Wells Ballet School by Ninette de Valois. She succeeded Alicia Markova as prima ballerina of the company in 1935. The Vic-Wells choreographer, Sir Frederick Ashton, wrote numerous parts for Fonteyn and her partner, Robert Helpmann, with whom she danced from the 1930s to the 1940s.
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