Uploaded August 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
In this footage, Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Frederick Ashton perform an excerpt of a pas de deux from Act 2 of ‘Swan Lake’.
The film was shot by Mr W Duff in the 1930s.
I am very grateful to British dance historian Louise Smedley-Hampson for the identification of Ashton as Markova’s partner, for the captioned photo she sent me formalizing this identification and for the source of the footage as Mr W Duff.
It would be great to find more of Mr W Duff’s footage!
Unfortunately there are credits running throughout as this footage was taken from a documentary.
A moment of total trivia - the unfortunate credits show that the camera man for the documentary as a whole is Philip Bonham-Carter, cousin of Helena Bonham Carter.
Enjoy!
In this footage, Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Frederick Ashton perform an excerpt of a pas de deux from Act 2 of ‘Swan Lake’.
The film was shot by Mr W Duff in the 1930s.
I am very grateful to British dance historian Louise Smedley-Hampson for the identification of Ashton as Markova’s partner, for the captioned photo she sent me formalizing this identification and for the source of the footage as Mr W Duff.
It would be great to find more of Mr W Duff’s footage!
Unfortunately there are credits running throughout as this footage was taken from a documentary.
A moment of total trivia - the unfortunate credits show that the camera man for the documentary as a whole is Philip Bonham-Carter, cousin of Helena Bonham Carter.
Enjoy!
