Anna Pavlova was born in St. Petersburg on January 31 (February 12 new style), 1881.
About her parentage we are not well informed: she was the daughter of a washerwoman,
Lyubov Feodorovna Pavlova, married to a reserve soldier, Matvey Pavlov, who, however,
was not supposed to be Anna's biological father. She may have been the offspring of Lyubov and the Jewish
banker Lazar Poliakoff. The young Anna Pavlova herself seems to have adopted the fiction
of calling herself Anna Pavlovna Pavlova instead of Anna Matveyevna Pavlova, with
reference to a mysterious Pavel, supposed first husband of her mother who died when Anna
was two years old.
For Pavlova's early memories we had best turn to her own words: 'I always wanted to dance,
from my youngest years. I could think of no other future, could not see myself in any other
role than that of dancer on a big stage in front of a crowded audience. I wanted to perform
for them the perfect beauty of movement, to wait with baited breath and a convulsing heart
for their applause. Thus I built castles in the air out of my hopes and dreams, which work
was crowned when I was taken for the first time to the Maryinsky Theatre...to a performance
of the Sleeping Beauty ...I was so riveted by the spectacle that I sat motionless. I hardly
dared to breathe, fearful to break the spell. Then, in the second act, just when many couples
were waltzing, I was suddenly tapped on my arm. I was startled, looked about and saw that
it was my mother who touched me. My breathless attention had struck her. "Nura", she said,
"would you like to be dancing with them?". I said "No, I would rather be dancing there
alone, like that sweet Princess" ... When I was eight years old I could no longer keep my
aspirations in check, and begged to be allowed to learn to dance' (translated from Anna
Pawlowa, Tanzende Fuesse. Der Weg meines Lebens, Dresden 1928).
Parts of this story may be fictitious, but we can be reasonably sure that Anna aspired to be
a ballerina from a tender age, and that her mother took her to the St. Petersburg ballet
academy on Theatre Street when she was eight years old. Indeed, her mother may have
welcomed the idea of the academy taking on all financial responsibilities for the child's
upbringing. At the academy she was told to re-apply in two years time, and in 1891 she was
admitted to this famous, priviliged imperial institute. Pavlova seems to have been happy at
the school: there were worse places to be in late 19th-century Russia.
Because of her talent and more elusive qualities, Pavlova soon attracted attention from her
teachers, amongst whom were Pavel Gerdt and Ekaterina Vazem, and of the man in power
at the Maryinsky, the famous ballet master Marius Petipa. There were some disagreements
as to her physique and her good looks, but not about her being something 'special'. At the
annual graduation performance of 1899 she made quite an impression on the jury, and it was
announced that she would join the Imperial Ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre later that year,
as a coryphee, that is, bypassing the corps de ballet. She made her debut on September 19
(old style), 1899, in La Fille Mal Gardée.
During the season 1901-1902 Pavlova's reputation became firmly established with the
knowledgeable St. Petersburg balletomanes. One amongst them looked upon her especially
favourably: Victor Dandré, a minor aristocrat and member of the municipal council,
who had
followed her career from her schooldays. The balletomanes or balletomaniacs, as the 'hard
core' Maryinsky audience referred to themselves took much interest in the pupils at the
academy, as they of course did in company members. This interest might often go beyond
the mere artistic, but certainly their love of ballet was as genuine as their desire for some
liaison.
Having much support, Pavlova's career flourished. In 1905 she was officially appointed to
the rank of prima ballerina. During these years she already was in close contact with those
members of St. Petersburg theatrical life who were poised for quite radical renewal, people
as Sergei Diaghilev, Alexandre Benois, Leon Bakst and Mikhail Fokine. In May 1907 she
was allowed to go to Moscow on her first independent tour, with a small company led by
Mikhail Fokine. Later that year, she presumably travelled as far as London (though not yet
performing there). She was quite ready to try on new things. Things such as Fokine's new-
fangled choreography. In December 1907 Fokine created a short solo, The Swan,
for Pavlova. This piece was to become completely identified with her name in the popular
imagination.
Pavlova's fame grew. So did her desire to go on tour. In 1908, her influential friends
persuaded the management of the Maryinsky to let her go with a small touring group to
Helsingfors (Helsinki), Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, and a number
of other German towns, finishing in Berlin. The success was overwhelming, and repeated
the following year. After her 1909 tour she traveled to Paris where she appeared in
Diaghilev's Saison Russe. The Russians' triumphs awoke interest in London and
in the United States. A quick visit to London, in order to perform for a choice audience
which included the King and Queen, brought Pavlova an advantageous contract, but first she
had to return to her duties in St. Petersburg. She was now with the Maryinsky for ten years,
28 years old and seven years before her compulsory retirement. The world lay before
her.
In 1910-1911 Pavlova toured England and the United States. In the meantime, in St.
Petersburg a scandal was brewing: Victor Dandré was accused of the embezzlement
of government money. After Pavlova's return to Russia he was released on bail, after having
promised not to leave the city. But within a few weeks Pavlova was performing in London
for Diaghilev, and early in 1912 Dandré slipped out of Russia and joined her. Was
Pavlova involved in the embezzlement one way or another, or did she just stand by an old
lover and protector? Probably Dandré was infatuated with Pavlova, while Pavlova
appreciated him as her protective manager. Anyhow, she now was loyal to him, and stayed
on in England. Later on, Dandré was presented as her husband, to which status he
could never produce any title. She certainly could not do without him, in future years, when
he masterminded her world wide tours.
Pavlova and Dandré settled permanently in London. She rented a house, which she
later
purchased, on The North End Road in Hampstead. This house, which became known as Ivy
House, was to be the base for Pavlova's world tours. She gathered her own company around
her and travelled widely, presenting ballet literally all over the world, also in places where
classical ballet had never been seen before. Millions must have seen her dancing, and she
attained the status of a super star. Many testified to the profound impression she left behind,
convincing the one of the beauty and expressiveness of classical ballet, inspiring the other to
take up ballet him or herself.
But two decades of almost uninterrupted touring took their toll: she burned herself up. In
January 1931, by now aging and tired, she was involved in a railway accident while travelling
from Cannes to Paris. She was unhurt, but caught a cold during the twelve hour delay during
which the carriages were without heating. By the time she reached Holland, the starting point
of a new tour, billed as a farewell tour, she had developed pneumonia. She died in a bedroom
of the Hôtel des Indes in The Hague in the early hours of January 23, 1931. Her ashes
are at Golders Green Cemetery, close to her beloved Ivy House.
Frederick Naerebout
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