<B>Big dame, tiny feet</B><BR>Louise Levene interviews Dame Alicia Markova in The Daily Telegraph<P><BR>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<P><BR>'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 . . .' "<P> <BR>Dame Alicia Markova: 'I used to do eight performances a week and travel on Sunday. We used to go out and build audiences and teach them' <P>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.<P><A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=%2Farts%2F2002%2F06%2F26%2Fbtmark26.xml" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>