📍Finsbury Park, London N4, UK
1910 – 1914“I was born Lilian Alicia Marks in December 1910 in Finsbury Park, north London, the eldest of four daughters of Arthur Marks, who was Jewish, and Eileen, an Irish Catholic who had converted to Judaism before they married. My family moved several times before settling in Muswell Hill, on a hill above the city, in 1914, and our home was full of music and make-believe; my father built a little stage in the garden, where my sisters and I put on shows in homemade costumes. I was a frail child, with flat feet, knock knees and weak legs, and when I was about eight, a doctor who loved ballet recommended dancing lessons to strengthen them. My first teacher was Dorothy Thorne, and soon I won a talent competition at a cinema in Muswell Hill. In 1920, at ten, I made my first professional appearance in a pantomime, Dick Whittington, and my parents sent me to study with Serafina Astafieva, a former dancer with the Ballets Russes, who had a studio in Chelsea. There the great impresario Sergei Diaghilev saw me dance, and he was enchanted. In 1925, a month after my fourteenth birthday, I joined Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo, the youngest dancer in the company, and he gave me my stage name, Alicia Markova. Balanchine created roles for me, and I became the first British ballerina to dance Giselle and Swan Lake in full. I co-founded what became English National Ballet, and was made a Dame. My childhood home in Muswell Hill now carries an English Heritage blue plaque.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today