Anna Pavlova

Anna Pavlovna Pavlova (born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; – 23 January 1931) was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognized for her creation of the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour around the world, including performances in South America, India, Mexico and Australia. Early life Anna Matveyevna Pavlova was born in the Preobrazhensky Regiment hospital, Saint Petersburg where her father, Matvey Pavlovich Pavlov, served. Some sources say that her parents married just before her birth, others—years later. Her mother, Lyubov Feodorovna Pavlova, came from peasants and worked as a laundress at the house of a Russian-Jewish banker, Lazar Polyakov, for some time. When Anna rose to fame, Polyakov's son Vladimir claimed that she was an illegitimate daughter of his father; others speculated that Matvey Pavlov himself supposedly came from Crimean Karaites (there is even a monument built in one of Yevpatoria's kenesas dedicated to Pavlova), yet both legends find no historical proof. Anna Matveyevna changed her patronymic to Pavlovna when she started performing on stage. Pavlova was a premature child, regularly felt ill and was soon sent to the Ligovo village where her grandmother looked after her. Pavlova's passion for the art of ballet took off when her mother took her to a performance of Marius Petipa's original production of The Sleeping Beauty at the Imperial Maryinsky Theater in 1890. The lavish spectacle made an impression on Pavlova. When she was nine, her mother took her to audition for the renowned Imperial Ballet School. Because of her youth, and what was considered her "sickly" appearance, she was rejected, but, at age 10, in 1891, she was accepted. She appeared for the first time on stage in Petipa's Un conte de fées (A Fairy Tale), which the ballet master staged for the students of the school. Imperial Ballet School Young Pavlova's years of training were difficult. Classical ballet did not come easily to her. Her severely arched feet, thin ankles, and long limbs clashed with the small, compact body favoured for the ballerina of the time. Her fellow students taunted her with such nicknames as The broom and La petite sauvage. Undeterred, Pavlova trained to improve her technique. She would practice and practice after learning a step.