Alicia Markova

Alicia Markova
Alicia Markova in 1940
Born
Lilian Alicia Marks

(1910-12-01)1 December 1910
Finsbury Park, London, United Kingdom
Died2 December 2004(2004-12-02) (aged 94)
Bath, Somerset, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
OccupationBallerina
TitlePrima ballerina assoluta

Dame Alicia Markova DBE (1 December 1910 – 2 December 2004) was a British ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the twentieth century. She was the first British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company and, with Dame Margot Fonteyn, is one of only two English dancers to be recognised as a prima ballerina assoluta.[1][2][3][4] Markova 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.

  1. ^ Dame Alicia Markova Royal Academy of Dance article Archived 15 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, rad.org.uk; accessed 17 May 2014.
  2. ^ "Dame Alicia Markova". The Telegraph. 3 December 2004. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  3. ^ Mary Clarke and David Vaughan (eds, 1977). The Encyclopedia of Dance & Ballet. Pitmans: London, UK, p. 228
  4. ^ Higgins, Charlotte (3 December 2004). "Alicia Markova, influential prima ballerina, dies at 94". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 July 2019.