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Service of Thanksgiving for Dame Alicia Markova DBE |
The Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of Dame Alicia
Markova DBE on 8 March saw a 'full house' at Westminster Abbey as
dance-lovers from around the country and overseas gathered to celebrate
the life of the first, great, British ballerina. The congregation
spanned the decades of her remarkable career and included young
students from English National Ballet School, Arts Educational Schools
and London Studio Centre as well as some of the dancers who toured with
Dame Alicia and her partner, Anton Dolin, in the Markova-Dolin Company
and Festival Ballet, the company that is now English National Ballet.
Sir Peter Wright, Director Laureate, Birmingham Royal Ballet, gave The
Address which was the most marvellous combination of historical fact
and theatrical reminiscence. Clement Crisp, Dance Critic of the
Financial Times, introduced and read from Markova Remembers, Matz read
a Biblical passage from Isaiah and Dame Alicia's nephew, Nigel Kempner,
gave a very personal tribute on behalf of her family. The Very Reverend
Dr Wesley Carr, Dean of Westminster, began the service with The Bidding
and Rabbi Roderick Young from the West London Synagogue also gave a
traditional Jewish reading and prayer in Hebrew. Pupils from Arts
Educational Schools in both Tring and London participated in the
prayers and dancers from English National Ballet performed part of the
pas de deux from the second act of Giselle and the Prelude from Les
Sylphides on stages in the Lantern and Nave.
As Co-founder and President of English National Ballet, Dame Alicia was
an inspirational figurehead who gave the dancers of the Company a true
sense of artistic continuity. Dame Alicia will be greatly missed by
everyone in English National Ballet, but her mission - to make ballet
as accessible and affordable as possible for people throughout the
country - is a policy that will continue to inform the Company's work.
We are grateful to Doris Barry and Vivienne Haskell, Dame Alicia's
surviving sisters, for their kindness and co-operation in devising the
service and we are immensely grateful to The Very Reverend Dr Wesley
Carr and The Reverend Chris Chivers for their guidance.
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