LONDON/GREAT BRITAIN: Unseen for 55 years and thought missing, it is a classical ballet scene that should melt hearts – the moment when a handsome prince leans over and wakes up Margot Fonteyn‘s Sleeping Beautywith a quick but tender kiss.

BBC presents. In addition to the photo presentation from ARENAPAL below.

Dame Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes performed Sleeping Beauty for a BBC special in 1959

Ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn dancing in a long-unseen performance of Sleeping Beauty will feature as part of BBC Two and Four’s short ballet season.

The ballet, which will be presented by Darcey Bussell, was filmed for a BBC television special in 1959.

Kicking off the season on 1 March, Bussell will also host a documentary – Darcey’s Ballerina Heroines – featuring figures that inspired her to dance

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A documentary about ballet and World War II will also be screened.

Dancing in the Blitz: How WWII Made British Ballet will see David Bintley, director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, explore how the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company grew during the war, and how ballet became the antidote to austerity.

The programme will feature interviews with dancers of the period, including Henry Danton, talking about rehearsing and performing during the Blitz
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Coveted role

Colour film from the period taken by an amateur cameraman has been restored by archivists from the British Film Institute to be shown for the first time in more than 60 years.

The ballet season will also feature Good Swan, Bad Swan: Dancing Swan Lake, giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the life of a ballerina.

Artistic director of the English National Ballet, Tamara Rojo, has been filmed backstage as she prepares for one of ballet’s most coveted roles – that of the swans Odette and Odile.

As well as performing the part, she will look back at other dancers who have taken on the prestigious role, and the demands put on ballerinas both physically and mentally.

Jan Younghusband, head of commissioning Music and Events, said: “BBC arts and music programming likes to put artists centre stage, as their knowledge gives us a unique insight into great performance and how it is achieved.

“BBC audiences will be able to re-experience some of the greatest ballet performances from the past and understand how great ballet roles were achieved from the great practitioners of now.”

1959 BBC recording of Sleeping Beauty LONDON/GREAT BRITAIN: A highlight of the BBC Ballet Season is the rediscovery of rare film footage of Margot Fonteyn as Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. The film was made for a one-off broadcast on the BBC in 1959 and will be re-broadcast next month. Below is a selection of images from the Royal Academy of Dance Collection, taken during the filming of the programme and includes performance and rehearsal shots – where even some of the 1950s BBC cameras are visible in the frame. Margot Fonteyn as Princess Aurora and Michael Somes as Prince Florimund Patrick Harvey, pianist 1959 BBC recording of Sleeping Beauty ArenaPAL represents Ballet images from the Royal Academy of Dance Collection, the Royal Opera House Collection, the Darryl Williams Dance Library as well as the archives of many leading current dance and ballet photographers. We are constantly adding to our online material – so if you don’t find what you are looking for on the website, just ask (wish-lists always welcome!)