Pavlova, Anna

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PAVLOVA, ANNA

PAVLOVA, ANNA (1881–1931), Russian dancer.

When Anna Pavlova first appeared in London in 1910, The Daily Express described her performance as an extraordinary success. Others agreed. Pavlova was considered one of the greatest dancers that London had ever seen. Although she also had detractors—critics in Berlin and Vienna, for example, objected to her thinness and fragile appearance—sixty years later, her biographer could still describe her as the best-known dancer of all time.

For all her fame, mystery surrounds Pavlova's origins. She was born on 12 February (31 January, old style), probably in 1881, because she entered the Imperial Ballet School in 1891 (ten being the usual age for admission). Her mother, a laundress, had married Matvei Pavlov, a peasant reserve soldier who died when Anna was two, but Pavlova rejected all association with him. Rumors of her illegitimacy circulated throughout her career.

Born two months prematurely, Pavlova was a sickly child. Her first teacher at the Imperial Ballet School, Yekaterina Vazem (1848–1937), feared the fragile girl could never handle a stage career, but Pavlova exhibited great determination. With the help of Pavel Gerdt (1844–1917), who recognized her lyrical gift, and Enrico Cecchetti (1850–1928), who strengthened her jumps and turns, Pavlova entered the Maryinsky Theater as a coryphée (one step above the usual entry point) in 1899. There she attracted the attention of the ballet master Marius Petipa (1818–1910). In 1902 Petipa cast her as Nikiya in La Bayadère, a ballerina role. In 1903 he gave her the title role in Giselle, a portrayal for which she became famous. Within an unusually short time—seven years—she achieved the formal rank of ballerina.

In this period, Pavlova often danced with the emerging choreographer Michel Fokine (1880–1942), who became a close friend and created the role for which she is best known, The Dying Swan, to music by Camille Saint-Saëns, in 1907. Like Fokine, Pavlova joined other dancers in protest against the theater management during the Revolution of 1905; and like Fokine, she began to find her artistic opportunities restricted when the protest ended. In 1908 she made her first foreign tour. She briefly participated in the Saisons Russes organized by Sergei Diaghilev (1872–1929) in Paris in 1909, but—in part because Pavlova disliked sharing the spotlight and in part because she received a lucrative offer to perform with her own troupe in London—she refused to return for a second season. In 1911 Victor Dandré, Pavlova's business manager and self-proclaimed husband, although there is little evidence that they ever married, was accused of diverting St. Petersburg city funds to support Pavlova. Dandré fled abroad rather than stand trial. In 1912 he and Pavlova bought Ivy House, in northwest London, where they lived until she died. Pavlova performed intermittently in Russia until 1914, but the outbreak of World War I brought her permanently to the West.

Pavlova enjoyed great success in Britain and in the United States, which she visited regularly from 1910 on—the first European ballerina to tour North America since Fanny Elssler in the early 1840s. Her troupe brought classical ballet to Central and South America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, East and Southeast Asia, Egypt, and India. By some estimates, her touring company traveled 350,000 miles between 1910 and 1931. They gave ten performances a week in gymnasiums, music halls, warehouses, even bullfighting arenas, as well as theaters, on stages of varying quality and sometimes outdoors. For the first decade, Pavlova herself appeared twice daily, assisted by one other ballerina. Her stamina and work ethic were legendary. So was her temperament: tantrums, refusals to perform, and sudden dismissals alternated with lavish parties and unexpected generosity.

Although numerous photographs and several short films survive of Pavlova dancing, few of these convey the traits for which she was known. Critics praised her unusual expressiveness, ability to sustain balance on pointe, airy jumps, and rapid turns. Her ballets showcased these qualities. She rarely staged full-length works, instead favoring short pieces depicting butterflies, dragonflies, flowers, or leaves. Only those choreographed by Fokine are still performed today. Her main impact on Western dance was through her audiences: the choreographer Frederick Ashton (1904–1988), among others, began to study dance because of Pavlova. Her students and performers did much to promote classical ballet in Britain.

Pavlova gave her last performance near her London home on 13 December 1930. A few weeks later, while on tour, she contracted pleurisy, perhaps exacerbated by overwork. She died in The Hague, Netherlands, on 23 January 1931, two weeks before her fiftieth birthday. That night, in tribute, the orchestra played Saint-Saëns's music while the stage stood empty.

See alsoDiaghilev, Sergei.