Alicia Markova

British ballet dancer

• Born: December 1, 1910
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: December 2, 2004
• Place of death: Bath, Somerset, England

Markova, known as the people’s ballerina, helped bring ballet to nontraditional venues beyond the city. She preserved the classical Russian ballet tradition with her dance interpretations but also helped modernize both British and American ballet.

Early Life

Alicia Markova (mar-KOH-vah) was born Lilian Alice Marks in Finsbury Park, London, England, to a Jewish father, Alfred Marks, and to Eileen Marks, a convert to the Jewish faith. As a child, Markova suffered from extreme weakness in her feet and legs. At the age of eight, she was enrolled in ballet school in an effort to correct the problem. She studied at the studio of Serafima Astafieva in Chelsea.

Markova’s first appearance on stage was at the age of ten, dancing the part of Salome in a pantomime by Dick Wittington. She was almost immediately recognized as an exceptionally talented dancer and was referred to as Little Alicia, the child Pavlova, named for the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.

When Sergei Diaghilev , the Russian impresario and director of the Ballets Russes, saw her perform, he was immediately impressed and wanted her to perform with his company. In 1921, he was staging a performance of his famous ballet production The Sleeping Princess. Although Markova was only eleven years old and very small, Diaghilev intended to put her on stage as one of the fairies at Aurora’s christening. However, Markova caught diphtheria and was unable to dance in the production. During her recovery, he took her to see ballet performances. Diaghilev and Markova developed a strong familial bond. Diaghilev thought of her as his English daughter, and he became a father figure who guided and advised her in her work. She, in turn, called him Sergypop, and she depended upon him completely. Diaghilev also had her name changed to Alicia Markova because of the bias against ballerinas who were not Russian. At the time, all the greats were Russian.

At age fourteen, Markova joined Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Special roles were created for her because she was so small. Known as the baby ballerina, she continued her study of ballet with Nicolas Legat, Enrico Cecchetti, and Vincenzo Celli. She also had a private lesson with Pavlova.

Life’s Work

Markova continued dancing with the Ballets Russes, performing with the corps de ballet and in feature roles such as a cat in Le Chat in 1927. Diaghilev continued to give her special attention, and he prepared her to become his prima ballerina. For her role as Princess Florine, he had a special feather headdress made for her. Instead of using ostrich feathers and pearls, he had the headdress made of feathers of bird of paradise and diamonds to complement her delicate features. In 1929, Diaghilev was bringing the ballet Giselle back into the repertoire especially for Olga Spessivtzeva. He was having Markova learn the role of Giselle. Tragedy struck, however, with Diaghilev’s death this same year. The company was left without a director and without funds, and the young Markova was devastated by grief.

Markova returned to England and was offered major roles by numerous choreographers. Frederick Ashton immediately asked her to dance as the ballerina in the playMarriage à la Mode. She also danced in his ballets La Péri (1931), Facade (1931), Les Rendez-vous (1933), Les Masques (1933), and others. Choreographer Ninette de Valois also created roles for Markova, including the cancan dancer La Goulou in Bar aux Folies Bergères (1934) and the Betrayed Girl in The Rake’s Progress (1935). In these roles, she displayed her versatility and emotive skills. It was in the role of prima ballerina in the great classical ballets, though, that Markova would establish herself as one of the greatest ballerinas of all time. Recognizing Markova’s exceptional talent, de Valois arranged for Nicholas Sergeyev to restage Giselle, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake with Markova as prima ballerina. Throughout Markova’s career, these ballets would be known as her ballets.

Markova had been regularly dancing with Anton Dolin as her partner. In 1935, they founded the Markova-Dolin Ballet and toured for two years. Then, in 1938, she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and toured throughout North and South America until 1941. From 1941 to 1945 she worked with the American Ballet Theatre. During this period, she danced in the ballets of many famous choreographers, including Michel Fokine and George Balanchine.

In 1948, she returned to England with Dolin. They performed at Covent Garden and then at a number of nontraditional venues. They also danced at Empress Hall in London and at Harringay Arena, performing for twenty-five thousand people during a four-night period. In 1950, with the financial backing of the Polish impresario Julian Braunsweg, they founded the Festival Ballet, hoping to introduce ballet to the English public who resided in areas other than London and to create more opportunities for ballet dancers. Markova suggested the Festival Ballet as the name for the company, reflecting the British Festival, which took place that same year. In 1989, the company’s name was changed to the English National Ballet. She was the company’s prima ballerina until 1952, after which she remained with the company as a guest artist.

Until her retirement in 1963, Markova toured with many of the major ballet companies. She performed as a guest artist with the Grand Ballet de Marquis de Cueva, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, La Scala Milan, and the Chicago Opera Ballet. After her retirement, she taught and trained dancers to perform Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker, Giselle, and Swan Lake. She served as president of the English National Ballet and was professor of ballet and performing arts at the University of Cincinnati. She gave master classes on British television. In 1960, she published Giselle and I, in which she recounted her experiences performing her most famous role. From 1963 to 1969, she was ballet director of the Metropolitan Opera. From 1973 until her death in 2004, she served as governor of England’s Royal Ballet.

Markova received many awards and honors during her lifetime. She received the Special Evening Standard Award in 1955 and the Dance Magazine Award in America in 1957, and she was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1958. In 1963, the Royal Academy of Dancing presented her with the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award. This same year, she was made a Dame of the British Empire (DBE). In 1966, Leicester University presented her with an honorary doctorate of music.

After suffering a stroke, Markova died at a hospital in Bath, Somerset, England, on December 2, 2004. She had turned ninety-four years old the day before.

Significance

Markova, often referred to as the people’s ballerina, helped establish ballet as a British art form and was the first British ballerina to dance the roles of Giselle and Odette-Odile. With her partner, Dolin, she expanded the ballet audience in England, and their Festival Ballet performed throughout the country at affordable prices, thus making ballet available to those who lived in rural areas and towns.

Until the time of her death, Markova worked to make ballet an internationally appreciated art form as well, and she worked to ensure that ballet continued not only to preserve the best of its tradition but also to embrace new ideas and concepts. Markova carried on the tradition of dancers Maria Taglioni and Pavlova. Her performance as prima ballerina in Giselle, Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake made these ballets a permanent part of the repertoire of the companies with which she danced.

Bibliography

Dolin, Anton. Markova: Her Life and Art. London: W. H. Allen, 1953. An appreciation written by her dance partner and cofounder of several ballet companies.

Garafola, Lynn, ed. The Ballets Russes and Its World. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. Collection of essays elucidating the impact Diaghilev and his company had on the dance world. Discusses how they changed ballet, its choreography, and its performance.

Greskovic, Robert. Ballet 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving the Ballet. New York: Limelight, 2005. Reviews the history of ballet. Discusses how a ballet is choreographed, rehearsed, and performed. Recounts the story lines of fourteen standard repertoire ballets.

Hall, George A. ed. A Legend of British Ballet: Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin. London: Staples Printers, 1965. A pictorial survey of the careers of Markova and Dolin.

Leonard, Maurice. Markova. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1995. A detailed biography of Markova that looks at her life and her career.

Markova, Alicia. Giselle and I. New York: Vanguard Press, 1961. Markova recounts her experiences performing Giselle. Includes a foreword by the first American critic of modern dance, Carl Van Vechten, whose work appeared in The New York Times.