Making of Markova

In pre-World War

I England, a frail Jewish girl – so shy she barely spoke a word until age six

and so sickly she needed to be homeschooled – is diagnosed with flat feet,

knock knees and weak legs. In short order, Lilian Alicia Marks would become a

dance prodigy, the cherished baby ballerina of Sergei Diaghilev, and the

youngest ever soloist at his famed Ballets Russes. It was there that George

Balanchine choreographed his first ballet for her, Henri Matisse designed her

costumes, and Igor Stravinsky taught her music - all when the re-christened

Alicia Markova was just 14. But the timid British dancer would be forced to overcome

poverty, jealousy, anti-Semitism, and prejudices against her unconventional looks

to become the greatest classical ballerina of her generation - and one of the most celebrated, self-reliant, and adventurous. A true ambassador of

ballet, Markova co-founded touring companies, traveled to the far corners of

the world, and was the first ballerina to appear on television. Given

unprecedented access to Dame Markova’s intimate journals and correspondence, Tina

Sutton paints a full picture of the dancer’s astonishing life and times in

1920s Paris and Monte Carlo, 1930s London, and wartime in New York and Hollywood.

Ballet lovers and readers everywhere will be fascinated by the story of one of

the 20th century’s great artists. 60 photographs