Australia Dancing - Markova, Alicia (1910

Markova, Alicia (1910 - 2004)

Stringer, Walter: Portrait of Alicia Markova, Melbourne, 1976

Alicia Markova, born Lilian Alicia Marks, made her debut as a dancer at the age of ten in pantomime at Kennington. She studied dancing with the Russian teacher Serafina Astafieva, and it was while with Astafieva that Serge Diaghilev saw her and took her, aged fourteen, into his company. For her debut with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes she danced the role of the Nightingale in Balanchine's staging of Stravinsky's Le Rossignol. She first appeared using her Russianised name in 1925 at the London Coliseum. When the Diaghilev company disbanded in 1929 following Diaghilev's death Markova returned to England where she worked for both Marie Rambert and Ninette de Valois.

In 1935, with her colleague Anton Dolin, she formed the Markova-Dolin Ballet, which toured Britain for two years. She was then invited by Leonide Massine to dance with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. With Alexandra Danilova she led the company in tours throughhout America and Europe. In 1941 she joined Ballet Theatre and continued to dance in the United States until 1948 when she returned to London. In London she danced with Dolin in what eventually became Festival Ballet. She retired from performing in 1963 although was director of the ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, during the 1960s and then, for five years, professor at the University of Cincinnati. She returned to London in 1974 where she taught and staged ballets for many companies around the world. She came to Australia in 1976 at the invitation of the Australian Ballet to stage Les Sylphides.

In her obituary the British critic Clement Crisp wrote 'Markova was one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. She had a delicate physique, a tungsten technique masked by a gentle appearance, and a flawless musical understanding. Everything she did had to appear effortless, which she achieved by an implacable will and total concentration'. Markova wrote two books - Giselle and I (1960) and Markova Remembers (1986) and was the subject of several biographies and monographs on her life.

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Other resources

Find more about Markova, Alicia in:

Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia
Internet - Google