Anna Pavlova

Anna Pavlova 

Anna Pavlovna Pavlova (/pævˈloʊvə/ pav-LOH-və, US also /pɑːv-/ pahv-, UK also /ˈpævləvə, ˈpɑːv-/ PA(H)V-lə-və;[2][3] Russian: Анна Павловна Павлова [ˈanːə ˈpavləvə]), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova (Russian: Анна Матвеевна Павлова; 12 February [O.S. 31 January] 1881 – 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 and Australia.

Anna Matveyevna Pavlova was born in the Preobrazhensky Regiment hospital, Saint Petersburg where her father, Matvey Pavlovich Pavlov, served.[5] 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.[6][7] 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.[7] 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. 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.

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. She said, "No one can arrive from being talented alone. God gives talent, work transforms talent into genius."[10] She took extra lessons from the noted teachers of the day—Christian Johansson, Pavel Gerdt, Nikolai Legat—and from Enrico Cecchetti, considered the greatest ballet virtuoso of the time and founder of the Cecchetti method, a very influential ballet technique used to this day. In 1898, she entered the classe de perfection of Ekaterina Vazem, former Prima ballerina of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Theatres.


During her final year at the Imperial Ballet School, she performed many roles with the principal company. She graduated in 1899 at age 18,[11] chosen to enter the Imperial Ballet a rank ahead of corps de ballet as a coryphée. She made her official début at the Mariinsky Theatre in Pavel Gerdt's Les Dryades prétendues (The False Dryads). Her performance drew praise from the critics, particularly the great critic and historian Nikolai Bezobrazov.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vaslav Nijinsky

Image
 Vaslav Nijinsky Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (/ˌvɑːtslɑːf nɪˈ(d)ʒɪnski/; Russian: Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, tr. Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, IPA: [ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj]; Polish: Wacław Niżyński, IPA: [ˈvatswaf ɲiˈʐɨj̃skʲi]; 12 March 1889[1][2]/1890[3] – 8 April 1950) was a Russian[4] ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry.[5] He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.[3] He was celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could dance en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time,[6] and was admired for his seemingly gravity-defying leaps. Nijinsky was introduced to dance by his parents, who were senior dancers with the travelling Setov opera company, and his early childhood was spent touring with the company. His elder brother Stanislav and younger sister Bronislava "Bronia" Nijinska also became dancers; Bronia also became a choreographer, working closely with him for much of h...
Read more

Martha Graham

Image
Martha Graham Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She was the first dancer to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the US: the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said, in the 1994 documentary The Dancer Revealed: "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable."[2] Founded in 1926 (the same year as Graham's professional dance company), the Martha Graham School is the oldest school of dance in the United States. First located in a small studio within Carnegie Hall, the school currently has two different studios in New York City. kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyh...
Read more

Rudolf Nureyev

Image
Rudolf Nureyev Nureyev was born on a Trans-Siberian train near Irkutsk, Siberia, Soviet Union, to a Tatar family. He began his early career with the company that in the Soviet era was called the Kirov Ballet (now called by its original name, the Mariinsky Ballet) in Leningrad. He defected from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961, despite KGB efforts to stop him.[5] This was the first defection of a Soviet artist during the Cold War, and it created an international sensation. He went on to dance with The Royal Ballet in London and from 1983 to 1989 served as director of the Paris Opera Ballet. Nureyev was also a choreographer serving as the chief choreographer of the Paris Opera Ballet. He produced his own interpretations of numerous classical works,[6] including Swan Lake, Giselle and La Bayadère. kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyhaame   kuyhaame Nureyev's grandfather, Nurakhmet Fazlievich Fazliev, and his father, Khamit Fazleevich...
Read more