Anna Pavlova

By: Geri Ferrer

Dance Block 5
 Anna Pavlova
• Born January 21, 1881 in St. Petersburg, Russia
• Mother was a washwoman, father remains unknown
- Young, Jewish soldier
- A Russian banker
• Anna and her mother were very poor
- Summers at grandmother’s house
• True desire to dance came at the age of eight after seeing
performance of The Sleeping Beauty at the Maryinsky Theatre
• At the age of eight, she was rejected from the Imperial Ballet
School for being too small for her age
• Finally, at the age of ten, she got accepted into the school
 Imperial Ballet School
• Anna was known for being a
principal artist of the school
• Anna studied at the Imperial
School of Ballet at the
Mariinsky Theatre from
1891
• She joined the Imperial
Ballet in 1899, after
graduating from the school
• In 1906, she became a prima
ballerina
• In 1907, she began her first
ballet tour
Ballet Tours
• Anna became the first
ballerina to travel the world
with ballet with her own
company
• She gave over 4,000
performances
• She kept a home in London
with exotic pets and her
manager/companion Victor
Dandare
• Most famous for her creation
of “The Dying Swan” in 1905
based off a poem by Alfred
Lord Tennyson
 Dance Style
• Anna was committed to the
classic styles of Ballet
• Known for daintiness,
frailness, lightness and both
wittiness and pathos
• Her slender frame and short
height of just five feet,
contributed to her unique
delicateness
• Her contemporary, Isadora
Duncan brought
revolutionary changes to
dance
Final Years
• Anna continued dancing
throughout her life, touring
the world
• In 1930, while on tour in
The Netherlands, she was
told she had pneumonia and
needed an operation
• She refused this operation,
for she was told that she
would never dance again
• On January 23, 1930, Anna
died of pleurisy
 Bibliography
1. "Anna Pavlova." Womens History. New York Times Company,
2010. Web. 15 Oct 2010.
<http://womenshistory.about.com/od/dance/p/anna_pavlova

2. "Anna Pavlova." Ballerina Gallery. N.p., 2010. Web. 17 Oct

2010. <http://www.ballerinagallery.com/pavlova.htm>.

3. "Anna Pavlova Biography." Notable Biographies. Advameg,

Inc., 2010. Web. 15 Oct 2010.
<http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/Pavlova-
Anna.html>.