Anna Pavlova

 

Anna Pavlova

(Saint Petersburg, 1882 - The Hague, 1931) Russian dancer. She began her studies in 1891, at the age of ten, at the Ballet School of the Marinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg with Pavel Gerdt, Christian Johansson and Eugenia Sokolova. She debuted in the company on July 1, 1899 with The Vestal Virgin. She was a supporter of the reforms introduced by Fokine, and she aspired to an interpretation of the music at her dances.

 

 

Anna Pavlova

 

In 1905, Michel Fokine created The Death of the Swan for her, premiered in St. Petersburg and presented at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York five years later. Named prima ballerina in 1906, she premiered in the lead roles the ballets Armida's Pavilion (1907), Chopiniana (1908) and Egyptian Nights (1908) by Fokine, some of which she danced again in the debut of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris, the year 1909.

 

After several tours through London, New York, Prague and Berlin with Mikahil Mordkin as a partner, Anna Pavlova, still linked to the Marinsky Theatre, formed her own company in 1910. The group, initially made up of only eight dancers, was expanded in 1913 to tour throughout America. Harcourt Algenaroff, Hilda Butsova, Laurent Novikoff, Ruth Page, Pierre Vladimirov and Alexander Volinine were some of her collaborators. The First World War surprised her in Berlin, but she managed to move to London, where she had performed privately for King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

 

Pavlova's distaste for new choreographic trends, which had led her to reject the lead role in Michel Fokine's L'Oiseau de Feu (1910) in Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, was evident in her company's repertoire, made up of many of the 19th century classics, in addition to the ballets The Fairy Doll (1914), by Ivan Clustine, and others choreographed by Anna Pavlova herself, such as Dragonfly (Fritz Kreisler, 1914), California Poppy (Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, 1916) and Autumn Leaves (Frédéric Chopin, 1918).

 

Throughout its fifteen years of existence (from its creation in 1910 until the dancer's retirement in 1925), Ana Pavlova's company offered more than four thousand performances on five continents. These shows were organized by businessman Victor D'André, often described as her husband, although no certificate has been found to prove this. Anna Pavlova died in The Hague as a result of pneumonia. In 1924, actor Douglas Fairbanks filmed some of Pavlova's solos, which later became part of the film The Immortal Swan (1956).

 

Her most famous dance was The Death of the Swan, arranged for her by Fokine, to music by Camille Saint-Saëns. Pavlova often performed dances adapted especially to her, which expressed moods, symbolized seasons or characterized flowers or creatures: Autumn Leaves, Christmas, Oriental Impressions, The Dragon. She inspired an entire generation and spread her love of ballet throughout the world.

 

How to cite this article:

Fernández, Tomás and Tamaro, Elena. «Biography of Anna Pavlova». In Biographies and Lives. The online biographical encyclopedia [Internet]. Barcelona, Spain, 2004. Available at https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/p/pavlova.htm [access date: March 1, 2024].

With affection,

Ruben