Anna Pavlova, Prima Ballerina

Anna Pavlova, a/k/a Anna Matveyevna Pavlova or Anna Pavlovna Pavlova, was the illegitimate daughter of a laundry-woman. Her father was probably a young Jewish soldier and businessman. When she saw 'The Sleeping Beauty' ballet performed, Anna Pavlova decided to become a dancer and entered the Imperial Ballet School at ten years of age. She worked very hard and after graduation began to perform at the Maryinsky Theatre, debuting on September 19, 1899.

In 1907, Anna Pavlova began her first tour to Moscow, and by 1910 was appearing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. When in 1914 she was traveling through Germany on her way to England and Germany declared war on Russia, her connection to Russia was for once and all broken.

The Dying Swan" Play
For the rest of her life, Anna Pavlova toured the world with her own company and kept a home in London where her exotic pets were constant company when she was there. Victor Dandrè, her manager, was also her companion, and may have been her husband (she deliberately clouded this issue).

While her contemporary, Isadora Duncan, introduced revolutionary innovations to dance, Anna Pavlova remained largely committed to the classic style. She was known for her daintiness, frailness, lightness and both wittiness and pathos. Her last world tour was in 1928-29 and her last performance in England in 1930. Anna Pavlova appeared in a few silent films: one, "The Immortal Swan", she shot in 1924 but it was not shown until after her death -- it originally toured theaters in 1935-1936 in special showings, then was released more generally in 1956.

Anna Pavlova died on January 23rd, 1931 from a respiratory illness. Her death came in Den Haag in the Netherlands just before her 50th birthday and, according to Dandrè, her last words were, “Prepare my swan costume”. Her body was brought back to London, her adopted home.

In 2001, the Russian Embassy in London requested that her ashes be removed from a London cemetery and transported to Russia, but approval for that request fell through and her ashes remain in London to this very day.

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