Anna Pavlova

Anna Pavlova — dancer with roots in the Russian Empire

Anna Pavlova was born in St Petersburg on 12 February (31 January, Old Style) 1881. Her mother was poor, and the usual account is that her father died when she was two; another account names a different man as her father and says that he paid for her training, and her patronymic appears both as Matveyevna and as Pavlovna. She was formed entirely in the St Petersburg Imperial ballet.

She was first turned away from the Imperial Theatre School as too young and too small, and was admitted at ten, in 1891. In her last year she was already dancing with the main company, and in 1898 she entered the senior class of Ekaterina Vazem, a former prima ballerina of the Imperial Theatres; as a student she tried hard to imitate the Italian Pierina Legnani, then prima ballerina assoluta of the Imperial Theatres. She joined the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky in 1899, rose through the grades to second soloist in 1902 and became prima ballerina in 1906; for her Giselle Marius Petipa adjusted the ballerina's dances to suit her. Michel Fokine created for her the solo The Dying Swan, to music by Saint-Saëns; most sources date it to 1905, one to 1907. It became her signature.

She began touring abroad in 1908. In 1909 she appeared with Sergei Diaghilev's company in its first Paris season, and in 1910 danced with Mikhail Mordkin in New York and London while on leave from the Mariinsky; her last appearance with Diaghilev was in London in 1911. In 1912 she and Victor Dandré bought Ivy House in Hampstead, which became her home, known for its ornamental lake and swans. She left the Imperial Ballet in 1913. The founding of her own company is dated variously to 1911, 1913 and 1914.

With that company she became the first ballerina to tour the world, dancing in South America, India, Mexico and Australia and bringing the repertoire of the Russian Imperial ballet to audiences that had never seen classical dance.

She died of pleurisy in The Hague on 23 January 1931, while on tour, three weeks before her fiftieth birthday.

Tracing the roots — St Petersburg

Born in St Petersburg in 1881, she trained at the Imperial Ballet School, joined the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky in 1899 and became prima ballerina in 1906, before taking the Russian Imperial repertoire on tour across the world from her base in London.

Born in St Petersburg to a poor mother; her father is recorded as having died when she was two, though one account names a different father who paid for her schooling. Her patronymic is given both as Matveyevna and as Pavlovna.

Historical context

Russian Empire · c. 1721–1917

St Petersburg. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.

Map: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

A career defined by ambition