Making of Markova Diaghilev's Baby Ballerina to Groundbreaking Icon

Tina Sutton

eBook - 2013

As improbable as it is inspiring, the story of one of the greatest ballerinas of the twentieth century; her fortitude and reinvention; and her journey from the Ballets Russes, Balanchine, and Matisse to international stardom 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 fourteen. But the timid British dancer would be forced to overcome poverty, jealousy, anti-Semitism, and prejudices against her unconventional looks to become the... more