Marguerite Porter

Marguerite Porter MBE, born on 30 November 1948 in Doncaster, England, is a former principal ballet dancer who has also worked as an actress and choreographer. She received her early training in Yorkshire before continuing her studies at the Royal Ballet School in London, where Dame Ninette de Valois was among her teachers.

Porter joined The Royal Ballet following two years of training and rose to the rank of Senior Principal Ballerina in 1978, a position she held during a twenty-year association with the company. Her repertoire encompassed many of the major classical roles, including Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake — performed alongside Rudolf Nureyev — Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Ophelia in Hamlet, and the title roles in Manon, Giselle, and Daphnis and Chloe. Upon departing The Royal Ballet, she continued as a guest artist for three additional years and has also made numerous appearances with English National Ballet. During this period she published her autobiography, Ballerina, A Dancer's Life.

In 1998, Porter made her Broadway debut in Matthew Bourne's production of Swan Lake, in which she played the Queen. Her screen credits include The Magic of the Dance with Margot Fonteyn and the British Institute film Comrade Lady, directed by Nobby Clark and choreographed by David Bintley. She also produced a ballet-based video titled Balletcise.

As a choreographer, Porter has created works including The Garden of Eros for London City Ballet and a production of Dancing at Lughnasa. Her teaching career has included positions at the Royal Ballet School, where in 2008 she passed on to Marianela Núñez the steps of The Dying Swan as Michel Fokine originally choreographed them for Anna Pavlova in 1907. She has additionally taught at Ballet Rambert and served as a guest teacher at the Hong Kong Ballet.

Porter holds governance roles at several institutions, serving as a Governor of The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and the Royal Ballet School, and as a Director of the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars, a position she assumed from the retiring David Gayle. In the 2015 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to ballet. Porter was married to actor Nicky Henson until his death in December 2019; the couple had one son, Keaton.