Alicia Markova has died.

international | arts and media | other press Saturday December 04, 2004 09:53 by -

ballet dancer, teacher, friend to many, mentor, charming little old woman.

has passed on from this life in her 94th year.
.:. REST .:.

Guardian-

Alicia Markova, prima ballerina assoluta and one of the most influential figures in British dance, has died in hospital in Bath on the night after her 94th birthday. A friend said she had been "gradually fading away this year".

As one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, Dame Alicia's contribution to British cultural life was profound. Born plain Lilian Alicia Marks in Finsbury Park, London, she was renamed "Markova", by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, her early champion, when she was plucked from her Chelsea ballet class to join his famous Ballets Russes in 1925, aged 14.

FT-

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. I adored her, and her knowledge and her prodigious memory for dances and dancers taught me infinitely much ("Alicia, tell me about . . . ." "Well, dear, I remember Mr Diaghilev saying . . .").

A fascinating portrait of her, still working at the age of 90, appears in Dominique Delouche's film Markova, La Légende (2001). Until the end of her life she remained a marvel of grace and dance- intelligence.

the Times-
ALICIA MARKOVA was still two months short of her 20th birthday when British ballet effectively began in October 1930 with the foundation of the Ballet Club (which later became Ballet Rambert)