But her remarkable talent and façade of fastidious primness masked a dark torrent within. Fonteyn’s life was the stuff of unimaginable fiction: taken as an underage mistress; married to a Panamanian Ambassador; involved in an attempted coup; the lover of innumerable, often homosexual, public figures; a cultural icon of the swinging sixties; betrayed by her husband’s family, and, above all, a dancer of extraordinary physical eloquence and purity – all culminating in this fragile beauty dying a penniless, lonely recluse.

This gripping film uncovers a mountain of archive footage, including memorable performances with Nureyev, and meetings with those who danced with her, knew her, and loved her.