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| Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) |
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was born in St Petersburg in Imperial Russia on January 31st, 1881 (some sources say 18th February). Her mother was Lyubov Feodorovna Pavlova, a poor washerwoman. Her father's identity is less certain. At the time of Anna's birth her mother was married to a reserve soldier named Matyev Pavlov but he is not believed to have been the father. It may have been a jewish banker named Lazar Poliakov with whom her mother was known to have had an association, or possibly her mothers first husband who is known to history only as Pavel.
When Anna was eight, as a special christmas treat her mother took her to see the St Petersburg ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre to see a production of 'Sleeping Beauty'. Little Anna was entranced by what she saw and from that moment decided that she wanted to be a dancer and could contemplate no other course for her future. Two years later, as soon as she was old enough, Anna was accepted into the Vagnova School of Ballet.
Always a frail and slightly built child, there must have been some question as to Anna's ability to withstand the rigours that her training would demand of her. But Anna lacked nothing in determination and it was not long before she was astounding her teachers with her natural talent. The Vaganova school trained dancers for the Russian Imperial Ballet and in Anna's eight years of training her burgeoning talent was to be moulded by some of the greatest dance masters of the day, including the legendary Marius Petipa himself. Anna danced in the graduation class of 1899 before a panel of judges who would decide which of the graduating students would be accepted into the company of the Russian Imperial Ballet. Anna's prodigious talent so impressed the judges that she was immediately offered a place with the company as coryphee, dancing in featured roles, without ever having to work her way through the corps de ballet. She made her debut later that year dancing in 'La Fille Mal Gardee'.
Her rise to prominence from that time was meteoric. She quickly became a favourite of the knowledgeable St. Petersburg ballet enthusiasts and by 1905 had been been officially appointed to the rank of prima ballerina, the highest position with the company. In 1907 Anna danced in Moscow for the first time in a small company led by Mikhail Fokine, who later that year created a short solo, 'The Swan', for her. A part that would be forever identified indelibly with Anna in the public imagination.
In 1908, Anna was permitted to embark with a small troup on her first foreign tour, playing in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Prague, followed by a tour of Germany concluding in Berlin. The tour was a massive success and was repeated again in 1909. After that second tour she traveled to Paris where she appeared in Diaghilev's Saison Russe dancing with Vaslav Nijinsky - one of the greatest balletic pairings of all time. That was followed by a visit to London where she danced before a select audience including the King and Queen. Eager to retain her services the Maryinsky theatre signed Anna to a ten year contract, which would take her to the age of compulsory retirement with that company.
In 1910-1911 Pavlova toured England and the United States, returning to St. Petersburg to find herself embroiled in a scandal. A minor Russian aristocrat, Victor d'André, who had been a benefactor and confidante of Anna's since her days at the Vaganova school, had been implicated in a case of embezzlement of Government money. He was released from custody on his own recognizance when he promised not to leave the country, but when Anna left for England in 1912 to perform in London with Diaghilev, d'André slipped out of Russia and followed her there.
Victor d'André joined Anna in London where they permanently settled and Anna purchased a house in Hampstead. From that time forward they were never seperated. The following year Anna resigned from the Imperial Ballet and set up her own touring ballet company based in London, d'Andre becoming her tour manager and spouse (although it is unclear whether they were ever actually married). Neither would never return to Russia again. Anna was at that time dancing with the great Novikoff, but their partnership became strained when Novikoff informed her he could not join her on her forthcoming tour of the USA as he needed to rest his muscles on medical advice. The ill-feeling came to a head at the Palace Theatre on August 9th, 1913 when Pavlova slapped Novikov in full view of a stunned audience causing him to walk off-stage. When the Great War (WWI) came Anna escaped from the hostilities performing mainly in North and South America, where she danced night after night in many different venues.
In subsequent years, with Dandré as her tour manager, she took her company to almost every corner of the world. In an era before aeroplanes and fast cars, when ocean liners and trains were the dominant forms of long distance travel, she embarkedon numerous world tours appearing across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. She lived most of her life on trains and in hotels and brought ballet to areas where it had never been seen before, on occasions performing in cinema houses or even circus tents when no better venue was available. At the height of her career she used up ballet shoes at the rate of a dozen pairs a week. For some time she had a contract with a shoemaker in Milan who would send her two dozen pairs of dancing shoes every fortnight, wherever she might be.
The years of hard work inevitably took its toll, and toward the end of her career she was forced to compromise by cutting difficult sections and performing only the less demanding pieces, but she never gave up her dancing. To help conserve her stamina, she reinforced her pointe shoes by adding a shank of stiffened leather sewn in place to hold its shape, it was the forerunner of all modern ballet shoes. In January 1931, Anna was aboard a train travelling through France on her way to Den Haag in Holland. The train was involved in an accident causing a twelve hour delay during which the carriages were without heating. Unwisely, Anna stepped out of the train in only her silk pajamas and a thin coat and walked through the snow to the head of the train to see what had happened. A few days later, having reached her destination, she became deperately ill from pleurisy. Her doctors advised an operation but it would have damaged her ribs and left her unable ever to perform again - she refused. Anna Pavlova died in her hotel room in Den Haag on January 23rd, 1931.
As she lay dying, her last words were said to have been "Get my swan costume ready." A few days later, in the theatre where she was due to have performed her famous Dying Swan, the house lights dimmed and the spotlight roved around an empty stage as the orchestra played the familiar score by Saint-Saens. Anna Pavlova now rests in Golders Green Crematorium, London, England.
In 1935, the Australian chef Herbert Sachse, introduced a new dessert for afternoon teas at the Perth hotel where he worked. It consisted of a base made of a meringue crust topped with whipped cream and fresh fruits such as kiwi fruit, strawberries or passion fruit. When Sasche presented his creation at a hotel meeting someone remarked that it was "as light as Pavlova", and that, according to the Australians, is how the 'Pavlova' dessert was born. This accreditation is hotly disputed in New Zealand however, where it is claimed that a chef at a hotel in Wellington created the dish taking Anna as his inspiration when she visited those islands on her 1926 world tour. This claim is supported by the fact that a cookbook published in New Zealand in that year contained a very similar recipe, although the name 'Pavlova' was not used. Wherever and by whomever it was invented however, there is no question that the dessert as it is now known was named after Anna Pavlova.