Alicia Markova

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Alicia Markova photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1940

Dame Alicia Markova, DBE (December 1, 1910 – December 2, 2004) was an English prima ballerina.

She was born Lilian Alice Marks to well-off parents in the Finsbury Park district of London. Her father, Alfred, was Jewish, and her mother, Eileen, was Christian.

At the age of eight, Marks was given ballet lessons to correct supposed problems with her legs and feet. She was soon spotted by Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who wanted her to dance in his Ballets Russes. Marks joined Diaghilev in Monte Carlo at the age of 14, and toured all over Europe. It was Diaghilev who "Russified" her name to Alicia Markova to avoid a then-current prejudice that only Russians could be good ballerinas.

Following the death of Diaghilev in 1929, Markova returned to England where she helped launch The Ballet Club (later Ballet Rambert), the Vic Wells Ballet (which ultimately became the Royal Ballet) and the Markova-Dolin Ballet (with Anton Dolin).

Markova appeared in ballets around the world, but is remembered mostly for her Giselle, as well as for The Dying Swan and Les Sylphides. During the Second World War she re-formed Les Ballets Russes in the United States and also appeared in Hollywood movies.

The audiences loved the little English ballerina, and she was called 'The miniature Pavlova,' and 'The best dancer ever to live.'

Markova founded her own company, Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), in 1950. She retired from active dancing in 1963. After being created a Dame, she became a teacher and travelled the world directing ballet companies.

Some time after suffering a stroke, Dame Alicia died on December 2, 2004 in a hospital in Bath, Somerset, one day after her 94th birthday.