What is Alicia Markova?
{{Infobox person |name = Dame Alicia Markova [[Order of the British Empire|DBE]] |image = Alicia Markova.jpg |image_size = 200px |caption = Markova in 1940 |birth_name = Lilian Alicia Marks |birth_date = {{Birth date|1910|12|1|df=y}} |birth_place = [[London]], [[England]], UK |death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|12|2|1910|12|1|df=y}} |death_place = [[Bath, Somerset]], [[England]], UK |nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]] |occupation = [[Ballerina]] |title = [[Prima ballerina assoluta]] and theatre company director}} '''Alicia Markova''' [[DBE]] (born '''Lilian Alicia Marks''', 1 December 1910 – 2 December 2004) was an [[English people|English]] [[ballerina]] and [[choreographer]]. She also directed and taught [[ballet]]. She was the first [[United Kingdom|British]] dancer to become the [[prima ballerina]] of a ballet company.<ref name=Debra/> Markova was born and raised in [[London]]. She was a founder dancer of the [[Ballet Rambert]] (1931/5), the [[Vic-Wells Ballet]] (193/5), Markova-Dolin Company (1935/8), danced for the [[American Ballet Theatre]] (1941/5), and was co-founder and director of the [[English National Ballet]]. She toured with Dolin after the war until 1949. Her last period as a dancer came with the London Festival Ballet, which became the English National Ballet. She retired from professional dancing in January 1963 at fifty-two. Markova died at ninety-four in [[Bath, Somerset]], of a [[stroke]]. == Life == Markova's father was Jewish, and her mother converted to the faith. She began studying [[ballet]] with Princess [[Serafina Astafieva]], a Russian ballerina living in London. Astafieva was a retired dancer of the [[Ballets Russes]], a renowned ballet company founded by the [[impresario]] [[Sergei Diaghilev]]. At 13, Markova was seen in class by Diaghilev, who was visiting London in search of new talent. He invited her to join the Ballets Russes in [[Monte Carlo]], which she did in 1925, a month after her 14th birthday. She danced