Big dame, tiny feet From plain Alice Marks to Dame Alicia Markova; from Saturday ballet class in Finsbury Park to Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Louise Levene is captivated by a real-life fairy tale

From: The Sunday Telegraph London | Date: June 23, 2002| Author: | Copyright information

`I was never intended to dance but one day - I must have been about seven or eight - my governess noticed that I had flat feet and knock knees and so my mother said `I'm going to take you to a specialist . . .' "

Dame Alicia Markova tells the story of her life in the thrilled, confiding tones of someone revealing the best-ever fairy tale. It's the story of how shy, skinny little Lillian Alicia Marks from Finsbury Park grew up to be a world-famous ballerina.

Dame Alicia will be 92 next December but she can recall every terrifying detail of that fateful Harley Street appointment: "I still ...

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