Dame Alicia Markova DBE (1 December 1910&_160;– 2 December 2004) was an English
ballerina, choreographer, director and teacher. She was the first
British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company and one of only two British dancers to be recognised as a Prima Ballerina Assoluta.
[1][2][3][4][5] She was widely considered to be one of the greatest
classical ballet dancers of the 20th century. She was a founder dancer of the
Rambert Dance Company,
The Royal Ballet and
American Ballet Theatre, and was co-founder and director of the
English National Ballet.
Markova was born Lilian Alicia Marks on 1 December 1910. Her father Alfred was Jewish and her mother Eileen was a convert to Judaism.[6] They lived in a two bedroom flat in the Finsbury Park district of London.
Markova began to dance on medical advice to strengthen her weak limbs and began studying ballet with Princess Serafina Astafieva, a Russian ballerina living in London. Astafieva was a retired dancer of the Ballets Russes, a renowned ballet company founded by the impresario Serge Diaghilev. She established the Russian Dancing Academy at The Pheasantry on King's Road in Chelsea and was responsible for teaching a number of notable British dancers including Marie Rambert, Margot Fonteyn and Anton Dolin. A blue plaque now marks the site of her former studio.
Markova made her stage debut at the age of 10, performing the role of Salome in the pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat, for which she was billed as Little Alicia, the child Pavlova.
