http://www.skyarts.co.uk/ Sky Arts is the home of classic and contemporary culture. Your destination for music, books, film, theatre, dance, opera, arts and documentaries. pl_images/A.jpg The tragic and inspiring story of Dame Margot Fonteyn, who was widely considered one of the nation's greatest and most devoted dancers, yet was sadly betrayed by those closest to her pl_images/A.jpg Dame Margot spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the company by HM Queen Elizabeth II pl_images/A.jpg Born Margaret Hookham in 1919 to an English father and an Irish and Brazilian mother, she started ballet classes at the age of four pl_images/A.jpg Although she moved to China with her family at age 8, her mother sent her back to England just six years later to pursue a ballet career, where she joined the predecessor of today's Royal Ballet School pl_images/A.jpg She had an on-and-off-stage relationship with celebrated Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, and they remained close lifelong friends despite a 19-year age gap pl_images/A.jpg Fonteyn was awarded a DBE in 1956 at the age of 37, and was one of five "Women of Achievement" selected for a set of British stamps issued in August 1996, five years after her death