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Born in St. Petersburg, Russia
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Younger Years
Anna had an active imagination and love of fantasy that drew her to ballet. "I always wanted to dance; from my youngest years... Thus I built castles in the air out of my hopes and dreams." - Anna Pavlova -
Accepted into the Imperial Ballet School
"No one can arrive from being talented alone, work transforms talent into genius." - Anna Pavlova -
Graduated from Imperial Ballet School
Anna graduated as a coryphee so she was able to skip right over dancing in the corps de ballet. -
Company Debut
Anna made her company debut by dancing in a group of three in La Fille Mal Gardee -
Breakthrough Performance in The Dying Swan
The Dying Swan became Anna's signature role. With her delicate movements and intense facial expressions, she managed to convey to the audience the play's complex message about the fragility and preciousness of life.
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Performance Facts
Anna frequently performed with bent knees, bad turnout, misplaced port de bras and incorrectly placed tours. Her enthusiasm often led her astray. Once during a performance, her energetic double pique turns led her to lose her balance and fall into the prompter's box. Her weak ankles led to difficulty while performing as the fairy, Candide, in Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, leading the ballerina to revise the fairy's jumps en pointe, much to the surprise of the Ballet Master. -
Anna's teacher, Pavel Gerdt, told her when she attempted Pierina Legnani’s famous fouettes, saying
“... leave acrobatics to others. It is positively more than I can bear to see the pressure such steps put on your delicate muscles and the severe arch of your foot. I beg you to never again try to imitate those who are physically stronger than you. You must realize that your daintiness and fragility are your greatest assets. You should always do the kind of dancing that brings out your own rare qualities instead of trying to win praise by mere acrobatic tricks.” -
Giselle
Anna danced this very difficult part, and was soon promoted to prima ballerina -
Anna's Feet
Anna's feet were extremely rigid, so she strengthened her pointe shoes by adding a piece of hard wood on the soles for support and curving the box of the shoe. At the time, this was considered “cheating” because in that era, a ballerina was taught that that she, not her shoes, must hold her weight en pointe. Her solution became the precursor of the modern pointe shoe. -
First Tour Abroad
Along with a handful of other dancers, Anna became the first ballerina to go on a world tour. -
Joined the Ballet Russe
Pavlova's performances left those who watched them with a lasting memory of disciplined grace, poetic movement, and incarnate magic. Her quality was, above all, the powerful and elusive one of true glamour. -
Toured the United Kingdom and the United States
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Formed her own company
Anna was able to retain complete creative control over performances and even choreographed her own roles. They danced excerpts of Mariinsky successes such as Don Quixote, La Fille mal garden ("The Girl Poorly Managed"), The Fairy Doll, or Giselle. The most famous numbers, however, were the succession of ephemeral solos, which were endowed by her with an inimitable enchantment: The Dragonfly, Californian Poppy, Gavotte, and Christmas, along with her singe choreographic endeavor, Autumn Leaves. -
The Train Ride
Anna boarded a train back to The Hague, where she planned to resume dancing. On its way from Cannes to Paris, the train was in an accident. Anna was unharmed, but was left waiting out on the platform for 12 hours. -
Holiday Off
Anna was 50 years old, and her 30-year dance career had come to physically wear on her, so she decided to take the holiday off. -
Death
Anna died due to double pneumonia. She was informed that a certain operation could save her life, but she would not be able to dance at all afterward. Anna chose to die rather than give up what she loved most. While on her deathbed, she was still very passionate about dance and asked to see her swan costume one last time. -
Legacy
Anna was one of the most celebrated and influential ballet dancers of her time. Her passion and grace are captured in striking photographic portraits. Her legacy lives on through dance schools, societies and companies established in her honor, and perhaps most powerfully, in the future generations of dancers she inspired. -
Fun Facts
Anna once said that the country that would produce the best ballerina in history would be the United States because of all the different cultures that came together there.
Anna was able to complete 37 turns while on top of a moving elephant while on tour in China.
Anna gave several charity performances to support Russian orphans of war. She adopted 15 girls into a home she had purchased and supported them with her earnings and donations from the Camp Fire Girls of America.
