A song about the dancer Margot Fonteyn's accomplished but tragic life. More about the treatment of artists in general.
electronica
indie
smooth jazz
piano
classical
instrumental
new age
film
Creative Commons license
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Story behind the song
This song was written in response to a documentary by Tony Palmer on the career and life of the exceptional dancer Margot Fonteyn. In a sense, the message of the film was universal in regards to the way artists are often used by others as siphons to draw wealth, power and even the creator’s very life force. Margot was devoted to her art such that her dance was not only amazing to her public but to her fellow artists / dancers and directors.
As a dancer she was used by her dance companies to fund the rich lifestyles of the directors while she received compensation in no way equivalent to her contributions. This was to such a degree that she had to dance well beyond the normal period of performance for all other dancers well into her sixties. When she was so impoverished that a benefit was held for her in 1990, she was virtually forced to dance for the contributing public to receive the benefit.
She had her demons. As with many others who over achieve, you can understand she was looking for love and approval both from her mother, husband and the rest of her public. However, she equally needed to lavish love on others and that was often her downfall especially in her love relationships where she seemed always to pick the wrong men. Her husband was Dr. Roberto Arias, once a Panamanian ambassador who she married in 1955. He often did not have much time for her other than to use the reserved boxes at her performances to make political connections. He was eventually paralyzed from the neck down shot by a jealous husband since he was having an affair with the man’s wife. Even though Margot had previously contemplated divorce, she seized on this condition to spend the remaining years of his life doting on him and meticulously caring for him while maintaining her career. In part, she was impoverished because of the way he spent her money maintaining a South American ranch they had purchased.
Used until her very end, she was a week away from dying of cancer in a Panamanian hospital, when her husband’s family entered her room with a lawyer to have her sign a modified will with her thumb INVALID since she could not sign otherwise).
She seemed only to live in dance. In the later years she could hardly walk up to the stage because of the pain throughout her body, but when she stepped out on the stage to perform she was transformed into her younger self. Those who knew her could not conceive how she managed those performances.
This song is meant to capture my theme in a minimalist piece of poetry which may be better understood from my explanation above.
Lyrics
Margot, the dancer,
A rose within the garden.
Stems of beauty
And thorns of pain.
Vision for the gallery
Kings and fawning wealthy
Takes her bows
And tossed bouqets.
Perched on toe tips of love
Gaping chasm of loving
From the spotlight above
To the dark pit of live unravelling.
[Bridge]
Margot, the dancer,
How it is you’re fading
Holding on beyond your years
But they thrust you
Out upon the platform
Hide your pain,
Draw in your tears.
Hide your pain.
Hide your tears.
Hide your tears.