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Introduction
This is a quick overview of Anna Pavlova's life. Throughout her life she did a lot of traveling over 400,000 miles performing. (Note: A lot of exact dates are not known, so the dates that say March 7 may not be the exact date, but it is the correct year, as TimeToast does not allow to put just the year.) Also, you made need to scroll down through some of the descriptions. -
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia
Anna Pavlov was a daughter of a laundress. She was sick a lot as a child with measles, scarlet fever, and diptheria. However, she was chosen for elite dance training in St. Petersburg, Russia during then end of the 19th ce. -
Sleeping Beauty
At age 8, she fell in love with ballet after seeing Sleeping Beauty at the Maryinsky Theater. -
Period: to
Attended the Imperial Ballet School
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Graduation from the Imperial Ballet on Theatre Street in Spring
From the age of 10 years, she studied classical ballet at the Imperial Ballet under Pavel Gerdt, Enrico Cecchetti, and Christian Johannsen. She graduated in 1899. She became designated coryphée for her debut with the Imperial Ballet in the fall. After graduation, she left for Warsaw, then traveled to Milan to study with Caterina Beterra at la Scala. She returned to Russia 3 months later, but went back agin hoping Cecchetti would be her private coach 1906-08. -
Went on strike
With other members of the Imperial Ballet, such as Fokine, and Tamara Karsavina, Anna went on strike demanding better working conditions and greater artistic autonomy and freedom. This led her to leave the Ballet, as the strike was short and issues were not resolved. -
First tour to Riga
She felt the compulsive urge to perform abroad. She did not want to succumb to Hollywood, but starred in the film the Dumb Girl of Portici. She also performed about 8-11 times per week and made about 10,000 dollars on her first tour. -
Partnered with Adolph Bolm
Toured Sweden, Denmark, Austria, and Germany. -
The Dying Swan
Palace Theatre, London. Choreographed by Michel Fokine for a charity event. Inspired by driving through the countryside of Russia, and playing "The Swan" from Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens. It has a universal life and death theme, as the cello plays mournfully. The dance is composed of bourées and pauses, with stretching and sinking into poses. Anna varied the poses over the years. This became the new version of Russian ballet. The swan became her trademark. -
Video of Dying Swan
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Joined Serg Diaghilev's Ballet Russes
Anna joined Karsavina, Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Branislava Nijinska and others from her former company in Serg Diaghilev's Ballet Russes. Then she left for the Palace Theater in London where she partnered with Mikhail Mordkin. -
Debut in America
Anna made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, with Mikhail Mordkin as her partner. -
Anna officially left the Imperial Theatre
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Tours in America
1st Tour:Metropolitan Opera House 1910. Due to expansion of the advertising, Anna got her attention by emphasizing her seriousness of her art form, which was a different approach. She eventually lent her name to advertising. When her husband and manager, Victor Dandré, started a rumor about her traveling with 10,000 pairs of shoes, she refused to take part in fake campaigning. She preferred interviews with papers and magazines, and sharing the understanding that dance is a serious form of art. -
Buys Ivy House in Golders Green, North London
Anna buys Ivy House in London, where she trains and opened a school for dance. -
Left for London
Started her own company in London -
The Dumb Girl of Portici
She appeared in a silent film, the Dumb Girl of Portici, which was based on an opera by Auber. -
Hippodrome
Anna performed next to trained elephants, acrobats, and Chinese jugglers. -
Autumn Leaves
Dressed in white tunics, Anna combined freedom aesthetic dancing with ballet. Her routine included various poses while others stood and leaned backward toward the middle with upraised arms in 1st arabesque. Each woman was connected by a leg, arm, or akle while their bodies were in gentle s or c curves, with wistful gazes, heads tilted to the side. -
First visit to India
She began to use more local dances and choreographed dances called Ajanta Frescoes (with Ivan Clustine), Hindu Wedding, and used Indian Chor Uday Shankar in Oriental Impressions. She met Uday Shankar, who eventually designed and choreographed A Hindu Wedding. -
On First Australian Tour
In Melbourne at His Majesty's Theatre, she performed for chairty and donated the proceeds to Refugee Russian Children at St. Cloud in Paris and the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Sydney. -
First Tour to Australia
On her way to Australia she stopped in South Africa. As part of her company she had 45 dancers and her partners were Laurent Novikoff, whom she preferred and Alferanoff. People traveled all over to see her and threw streamers as custom. JC Williamson a rep. of the musical assoc., G de Calros Rego and A Lubimoff, secretary of the Russian Society were there to greet her. She also toured parts of New Zealand on this tour. -
First Australian Tour in Sydney
Last performance in Sydney on 1926 tour. -
In London
Leila Sokhey, an Indian woman, met Pavlov in London. Pavlov then hired Algeranoff, to teach her. Leila then returned and started her own school of dance in Bombay. -
2nd Trip to India
She presented her Oriental Impressions. -
Second Tour to Australia
March: 42 dancers. Her main purpose was to reveal her art to the world. Performed in small towns, with hectic schedules traveling from town to town performances almost every day. She did not travel in luxury, but sometimes would stay with a host in a town, using rainwater. She traveled by train. -
On the second Australian Tour at His Majesty's Theatre
March 30 until April 9th: This place had squeaky floor boards, but Anna proceeded to perform. Here she performed Don Quixote and presented Giselle, which had not been performed there for more than 69 years. -
On the second Australian Tour at Sydney Theatre Royal
April 13 to May 22: She went to Sydney Theatre Royal. She spend six weeks here, after traveling to other places and then returning back for the State Theatre art quest. She rented a house with a garden 20 minutes from the theatre. She had picnics on Sunday and employed her own shoemaker. She kept birds from every country she visited and loved painting. However, her favorite was the swan. -
On second Australian Tour Melbourne Season at His Majesty's Theatre.
25 May to 24 June: Melbourne season at His Majesty's Theatre. Here some of Anna's performances were filmed including her famous Autumn Leaves. -
On second Australian Tour Theatre Royal
26 June to 3 July at Theatre Royal. By the end of the tour Anna's company had performed 120 performances over a period of 4 months. She was 48 years old and danced in every single one of them. -
Died, The Hague, Netherlands
After a brief bout of pneumonia she went into a coma before starting her tour in Hague, Netherlands and died at age 49 years. Her last words were, "Prepare my Swan Costume." -
Summary
Anna promoted ballet as something that occurred outside of music halls. She combined ballet, jazz, modern, tap and dance influences from around the world, revived past dances, and inspired many. She traveled over 400,000 miles including Philippines, Jpan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Egypt, South Africa, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, and throughout Europe. -
Summary of Anna's Style
Anna mixed ballet, modern, jazz, and tap in with cultural and religious traditions from various countries. She was not intersted on full turnouts, but more on organic movement or full expression with technique. However, "technique must be the student and not the master." She revived many classical forms in many countries including India and Australia. She also incorporated culture and religious aspects into her own choreography. This was seen in her luxurious costumes from around the world. -
Resources
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