Anna Pavlova (dancer)

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Anna Pavlova as Nikiya in the Grand Pas Classique of the Shades from Act III of La Bayadère, circa 1902

Anna Pavlova is also the name of an Olympic gymnast. See Anna Pavlova (gymnast).

Anna Pavlovna Pavlova (Анна Павловна Павлова) (31 January 1881 (Old Style)/12 February 1881 (New Style) - 23 January 1931) was a famous ballet dancer of the early 20th century.

She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia to a poor peasant family. She later claimed her father had died when she was two years old. It is possible she was illegitimate, and biographers speculate that her father may have been Jewish, which would explain her desire not to speak too much about her paternal heritage. She was rejected at the age of eight from the School of Imperial Ballet because she was too young. When she was 10, she was accepted, and trained there until she left at 16. Pavlova then danced with the Mariinsky Theatre. In the first years of the Ballets Russes she worked briefly for Serge Diaghilev before founding her own company and performing throughout the world.

Pavlova forever changed the ideal for ballerinas. In the 1890s, ballerinas at the Mariinsky Theatre were expected to be strong technicians, and this usually meant a strong, muscular, compact body. Pavlova was thin, delicate-looking, and ethereal, perfect for romantic roles such as Giselle. Her feet were extremely arched, so she strengthened her pointe shoe by adding a piece of hard leather on the soles for support and flattening the box of the shoe. At the time, many considered this "cheating", so Pavlova retouched all her photos to hide the boxy platform. But this became the modern pointe shoe, as pointe work became less painful and easier for arched feet.

Her most famous showpiece was The Dying Swan choreographed for her by Michel Fokine, danced to The Swan from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns.

She died of pleurisy in The Hague, Netherlands while touring, a few days or weeks before her 50th birthday. Her last request was to hold her costume from The Swan, and her last words were "Play that last measure very softly". In accordance with ballet tradition, on the day she was to have next performed, the show went on as scheduled, with a single spotlight circling an empty stage where the dancer would have been. She was cremated, and services were held in a Russian Orthodox church in London before burial in Golders Green Cemetery in London. Her remains were moved in 2001 to the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow in accordance with her requests and after considerable controversy [link].

The Pavlova dessert was named after her, although its origins are disputed. Both New Zealand and Australia have claimed the credit.

Ruth St. Denis, a popular modern dancer said "Pavlova lived on the threshold of heaven and earth as an interpreter of the ways of God". ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

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