Born Margaret Hookham around Reigate, Surrey, she married Roberto Arias, a Panamanian diplomat. In the Forties she developed an extremely successful dance partnership by owning Robert Helpmann, and it toured together for many years. Below a defection of Rudolf Nureyev to the West, Fonteyn began an on-stage partnership sustaining him which lasted until she retired. It appeared together around the film version of Swan Lake. She was chancellor of the University of Durham from 1981 to 1990. A independent hall in the Student Union building is known as when her. A folk class action Eddie From Ohio has a song dedicated to her.

Fonteyn was created the Dame of the Order of the British Empire in 1954.

Margot Fonteyn died inside Panama City, Panama in her 72nd year.

Quotes
''"A 1 crucial tool We've learned on top a years is the difference between ingesting 1's function seriously & ingesting of these's self seriously. A 1st is imperative & a 2nd is fatal."''