Norma Fontenla

Returning to Buenos Aires, she led the Colón Theatre Ballet in works such as Frédéric Chopin's Les Sylphides, Adolphe Adam's Giselle, Léo Delibes' Coppelia, and as Odette in Peter Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

She organized a tour of opera houses in the Argentine hinterland in 1970, and was invited to direct the ballet company in Milan's renowned La Scala.

The success of the program was followed by a series of performances by Nureyev for Argentine television, alongside Fontenla and her primo ballerino, José Neglia.

[1] Fontenla, Neglia and seven other members of the ballet company boarded a flight at Jorge Newbery Airfield on October 10, 1971, en route to Trelew, a city in Patagonia where they were scheduled to perform.

Their remains lay in state at the Colón, and on the first anniversary of the tragedy, a monument in their honor was unveiled on Lavalle Plaza (within steps of the opera house).