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Dateline: 3rd December, 2004
Dame Alicia Markova (1910 - 2004) Dame Alicia Markova, one of the greatest ballet dancers Britain has ever produced, has died at the age of 94. Born Lilian Alicia Marks in Finsbury, North London, on 1st December, 1910, she didn't speak until the age of six. As a child she was frequently ill and was also so flat-footed that an orthopedic surgeon suggested ballet lessons as an alternative to wearing leg-irons. By the age of ten she had made her professional debut in a pantomime. She was regarded as something of a child prodigy and, until she was fourteen, when her father died, played the music halls. She studied with Princess Astafieva, who was a friend of Diaghilev who came to see her and was impressed. She joined Diaghilev's company, which at that time included George Balanchine, Olga Spessivtseva and Ninette de Valois, and became a child soloist. De Valois was given the job of looking after "the brat", as she called her. She became a great favourite of Diaghilev who was planning a new version of Giselle for her when he died in 1929.
In 1925 she danced the title role in Balanchine's first ballet, Le Chant du Rossignol, wearing a leotard designed by Matisse. With Anton Dolin she returned to Britain in 1950 and founded the Festival Ballet, formed to take ballet out of London to provincial audiences. This company later became English National Ballet. She became Dame Alicia in 1963, retired from dancing and became director of ballet at the new York Metropolitan Opera. Eight years later she was appointed as a professor in the Cincinatti Conservatory. She continued giving classes into her eighties. She had a stroke recently and died in a nursing home in Bath the day after her 94th birthday. She is survived by her sister, Vivienne Haskell.
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