Obituary for Anna Pavlova. Ballerina Anna Pavlova: she loved only once and did not run away from an early death

"An artist must know all about love and learn to live without it."
Anna Pavlova

She was called "Divine" and "Delightful". She was said to be the "White Swan" and even the "Swan Fairy". One girl wrote to her parents: “Remember, you said: the one who sees the fairy will be happy all his life. I saw a living fairy - her name is Anna Pavlova.

Brilliant Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova became a legend during her lifetime. Journalists competed with each other in writing stories about her. She read myths about herself in the newspapers - and laughed. Legends surround her name to this day.

She never spoke about her personal life, in which there was a single man. Her whole life - true, real, known and open to everyone - was in dance. And she managed to die before she left the stage ...

The most famous ballerina of the past century, Anna Pavlova (1881-1931), whose life was completely devoted to ballet, about which there were many rumors and legends, wished to keep everything that did not concern her work a secret. Nothing was known about her personal life. And only after her death did the world learn about the beautiful and tragic history love, the secret of which the legendary ballerina kept in her heart for thirty long years.

Anna Pavlova was born on January 31 (February 12), 1881. Her father died very early, and the girl was raised by her mother. Although they lived in constant poverty, Lyubov Feodorovna, moonlighting as a laundress, tried to brighten up the difficult childhood of "beloved Nyura". On the name day and Christmas, the girl was always waiting for gifts brought by a caring, generous hand, and when Anna turned eight, her mother took her to the Mariinsky Theater to the ballet Sleeping Beauty.

So the future dancer fell in love with this art forever, and two years later the thin and sickly girl was admitted to the ballet department of the St. Petersburg Theater School. Eight years later, Pavlova became the leading actress of the Mariinsky Theatre, and after her stunning success as Nikiya in La Bayadère, she was already called the first soloist of the Mariinsky Theater.

Newspapers wrote about the novice ballerina with delight: “Flexible, musical, with a mimicry full of life and fire, she surpasses everyone with her amazing airiness. When Pavlova plays and dances, there is a special mood in the theater.”

She had admirers, men made dates for her, gave gifts, but Anna rejected everyone, and sent generous gifts back to bewildered suitors. She was proud, sensual and unpredictable. “I am a nun of art. Personal life? This is a theater, theater, theater, ”Pavlova did not get tired of repeating.

However, the girl was lying. It was at that time that an incomprehensible, still unknown feeling flared up in the heart of a young ballerina. Relatives knew that she spent all her free time with the rich, handsome Victor Dandre (1870-1944). The new acquaintance came from an aristocratic family belonging to an old noble family. He held a high post of adviser in the Senate, was well educated, owned several foreign languages and took a great interest in art. To patronize an aspiring ballerina, as the members did before him imperial family seemed prestigious to Victor.

The young entrepreneur became the patron of the young artist, which, however, was quite fashionable at that time. However, Victor did not even think of marrying her. He rented an apartment for Pavlova, equipped one of the rooms under dance hall, which for a young ballerina was at that time an unaffordable luxury. Each time, meeting the girl after the performance, Victor presented her with luxurious gifts, took her to expensive restaurants, invited her to the company of wealthy, intelligent and famous people, and in the evening he brought her to the apartment, where he often remained as the owner until the morning.

But the more she got to know Pavlova's new acquaintance, the more clearly she understood that Dandre did not need her at all, but unequal marriage with a modest girl is impossible for him. And she left him, preferring loneliness to the humiliating position of a kept woman. “At first I struggled,” Pavlova recalled, “beginning with grief just to revel, wanting to prove something to him!” And then, once again following her motto, she returned to work.

She trained again, toured with her favorite theater troupe and danced eight to ten times a week. At that time, another meeting took place in her fate, which changed a lot in the life of a famous dancer. Great choreographer Fokine set for her to the music of Camille Saint-Saens "The Dying Swan", which forever became the ballerina's crown number and flew around the world. Much later, when the composer met Pavlova, he, delighted with her performance, exclaimed: “Madam, thanks to you, I realized that I wrote amazing music!”

In 1907 the Mariinsky Theater went on tour to Stockholm. It was after these tours in Europe that they first started talking about the brilliant young ballerina, whose performances were such a rapid success that even Emperor Oscar II, admiring Pavlova's talent, handed her the Order of Merit for Art in parting. The enthusiastic crowd greeted the ballerina with a standing ovation. “I was greeted with a whole storm of applause and enthusiastic shouts. I didn’t know what to do, ”recalled Anna Pavlova. It was a real triumph. Anna became famous, she had money, she could already afford a lot. The ballerina tried not to remember Victor.

In the meantime, things were not going well for Dandre. Having turned an unsuccessful deal, the entrepreneur owed a huge amount, which he failed to repay in due time. He went to jail without finding large sum money that was required to post bail and release him during a lengthy trial. Relatives could not raise funds, and rich friends turned their backs on an unfortunate partner. For Dandre began a difficult period of painful waiting behind bars in loneliness and doubt.

And Anna shone already in Paris. Sergei Diaghilev, who discovered Russian in the French capital ballet theater, having invited Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky there, did not miscalculate. They started talking about the Russian theater, people from high society began to visit it, people from all over Europe came to see the Russian ballerina, the theater was invited to Australia and America.

The future seemed so enticing and bright. However, Pavlova unexpectedly left Paris and headed for London. A few months later, Diaghilev learned that his favorite soloist had signed a contract with the well-known Braff theater agency, under which she was supposed to dance twice a day in three countries— England, Scotland, Ireland. For this, the dancer received an advance payment - an impressive amount for those times.

She immediately sent the collected money to Russia to release Viktor from prison. A few days later, in 1911, he left St. Petersburg and went abroad. “In Paris, I decided that I couldn’t live without Dandre. I immediately called him to my place, ”Pavlova recalled. - We got married in a church, under a secret. He's mine, only mine, and I adore him."

With Victor Dandre

Their marriage was kept secret long years. Victor kept his promise given on the wedding day to Anna. He swore to keep silent about their union. The former patron responded to generosity with a strong feeling that flared up in his heart so as not to fade away until the last days.

When the contract came to an end, Anna decided to organize her own theater and recruited a troupe of artists. So the former prima of the Mariinsky Theater became the mistress of a small theater. In the same year, she bought a luxurious mansion near London, on the shores of a clean lake, where white swans swam and exotic plants grew around, brought by a ballerina from different corners peace. It seemed that the fate of the spouses did not depend on anyone else.

Pavlova in his mansion in London

Victor took care of all household chores, the duties of an accountant and a manager. He answered correspondence, conducted business and personal negotiations, organized tours, oversaw costumes and scenery, hired and fired actors. However, Pavlova increasingly expressed displeasure. She reproached her husband, scandalized, shouted, broke dishes and cried.

After long tantrums and tears, the ballerina's spouses reconciled, and it seemed that nothing threatened their family idyll again. Again, Victor solved all his wife's problems, and Anna ran around the house and theatrically shouted to the maid: “Who dared to clean his shoes? Who in my house dares to make tea for him? It's my business!"

However, the emotional and temperamental Pavlova could immediately change her mood and rush at Victor with new insults. Friends who often witnessed these quarrels later asked Dandre how he could endure all this and why he did not leave Anna. He was silent. Apparently, he had his own reasons for this, known only to the two of them.

He idolized her, thanking her for her generosity and generosity. She could not forget him a long-standing offense inflicted in his youth. Whether she forgave him, we are unlikely to ever know. But there was no doubt about the sincerity of Victor Dandre's feelings. When his wife died on January 23, 1931 from pneumonia, just a few days before her fiftieth birthday, Victor, broken by grief, could not return to normal life for a long time.

He did not want to believe that Pavlova was no more. Having created a club of fans of his famous wife, Victor Dandre wanted only one thing - that the great ballerina of the 20th century would be remembered for many years. Unfortunately, the club did not manage to exist for a long time. Nevertheless, the name of the Russian ballerina, the legendary Anna Pavlova, entered the history of world ballet forever.

Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was born on February 12 (according to the new style), 1881 in St. Petersburg. Until now, there is no reliable information about her father. Even in encyclopedias, Anna's patronymic is given either Pavlovna or Matveevna. The ballerina herself did not like to be called by her patronymic, in extreme cases she preferred to be called Anna Pavlovna - by her last name. In the eighties of the last century, a document was found in the theatrical archive of St. Petersburg, confirming that Matvey Pavlovich Pavlov was married to Lyubov Fedorovna, Pavlova's mother. The document was dated 1899. This meant that he was alive at the time when the girl was already 18 years old.

Once, when Anna had already become famous, the son of a wealthy St. Petersburg banker Polyakov said that she was his half-sister. The mentioned document states that Lyubov Fedorovna had a daughter, Anna, from another marriage. But she had never been married before. Then it became known that around 1880 Lyubov Fedorovna was in the service of the Polyakov family. Suddenly she disappeared, why is not exactly known, but it can be assumed that this was due to her pregnancy. Anna's biological father is probably the wealthy banker Lazar Polyakov. True, the latter did not give a single ruble for the upbringing of the girl, and it is not known about any contacts in the future between the Polyakov family and the ballet star ...

In her autobiography, written in 1912, Anna Pavlova recalled her childhood and her first steps on stage:

"My first memory is small house Petersburg, where we lived together with my mother ...

We were very, very poor. But my mother always managed to give me some pleasure on big holidays. Once, when I was eight years old, she announced that we would go to the Mariinsky Theatre. "Here you will see the sorceresses." They showed Sleeping Beauty.

From the very first notes of the orchestra, I became silent and trembled all over, for the first time feeling the breath of beauty above me. In the second act, a crowd of boys and girls danced a wonderful waltz. "Would you like to dance like that?" Mom asked me with a smile. "No, I want to dance like that beautiful lady who portrays the sleeping beauty."

I love to remember that first evening at the theater that sealed my fate.

“We cannot accept an eight-year-old child,” said the director of the ballet school, where my mother brought me, exhausted by my persistence. “Bring her back when she is ten years old.”

During the two years of waiting, I became nervous, became sad and thoughtful, tormented by the persistent thought of how I could quickly become a ballerina.

Entering the Imperial Ballet School is like entering a monastery, such iron discipline reigns there. I left school at the age of sixteen with the title of the first dancer. Since then, I have been a ballerina. In Russia, apart from me, only four dancers have the official right to this title. The idea to try myself on foreign stages came for the first time when I read the biography of Taglioni. This great Italian danced everywhere: in Paris, and in London, and in Russia. A cast from her leg is still kept with us in St. Petersburg.

Pavlova's studies at the Imperial Ballet School and the Mariinsky Theater

In 1891, the mother managed to get her daughter into the Imperial Ballet School, where Pavlova spent nine years. The charter of the school was monastically severe, but they taught excellently here. At that time, the St. Petersburg Ballet School was undoubtedly the best in the world. Only here the classical ballet technique was still preserved.
Pavlova, completely absorbed in her studies, choreographic and music lessons, the "monastic" life of the choreographic school did not seem painful. She was only worried about her own fragile constitution, which did not correspond to the standards of stage beauty adopted in those years. At that time, Italian dancers shone on the ballet stage, possessing a refined technique and developed muscles, enabling them to perform the most virtuoso elements. As a result, the public, critics and the artists themselves entrenched the image of an ideal ballerina as strongly built, with relief forms, capable of performing high, powerful jumps and the most difficult choreographic tasks. Such was the favorite of the public, the Italian ballerina Legnani. And Pavlova remained miniature, fragile, with a light figure. Her “airiness” seemed to be a flaw both to her teachers and to herself. With great effort she took the fish oil prescribed to her, ate heavily in order to at least slightly correct her “flaw”.

Fortunately, in the senior classes, the same Pavel Andreevich Gerdt became Pavlova's teacher, who appreciated the unusualness of his student, her rare talent. Seeing how Anna diligently performs exercises that contributed to the development of leg strength, but completely unsuitable for her and could damage her body, he tried to convince the young dancer: “Give others acrobatic stunts ... What seems to you to be your disadvantage, in fact a rare quality that distinguishes you from thousands of others.

However, for a long time Anna remained with her conviction that her technical capabilities were very limited by her physical data. Only later did she fully appreciate the strength of her own individuality, realizing that amazing plasticity and, most importantly, the highest spirituality, make her an outstanding, unique ballerina.

In 1898, being a student, Pavlova performed in the ballet "Two Stars", staged by Petit-pa. Even then, connoisseurs noted some special, only inherent grace, an amazing ability to capture the poetic essence in the party and give it its own coloring.

After graduating from school in 1899, Pavlova was immediately enrolled in the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater. Her debut at the Mariinsky Theater took place in 1899 in the ballet The Pharaoh's Daughter to the music of Caesar Pugni directed by Saint-Georges and Petipa. Having neither patronage nor a name, she remained on the sidelines for some time. The thin dancer, who was notable for poor health, showed a strong-willed character: she was used to overcoming herself and even the patient did not refuse to perform on stage. In 1900, in The Awakening of Flora, she received the part of Flora (Fokine played the role of Apollo). Then responsible roles began to follow one after another, and Pavlova filled each of them with a special meaning. Staying completely within classical school, she knew how to be amazingly original and, performing old ordinary dances, turned them into genuine masterpieces. The Petersburg public soon began to distinguish the young talented ballerina. The skill of Anna Pavlova improved from year to year, from performance to performance. The young ballerina attracted attention with her extraordinary musicality and psychological restraint of the dance, emotionality and drama, as well as creative possibilities that had not yet been discovered. In every new performance the ballerina brought in a lot of new, her own.

A. Pavlova and M. Novikov.

Soon Anna Pavlova becomes the second, and then the first soloist. In 1902, Pavlova created a completely new image of Nikiya in La Bayadere, interpreting it in terms of a high tragedy of the spirit. This interpretation changed the stage life of the play. The same thing happened with the image of Giselle, where the psychologism of the interpretation led to a poetically enlightened finale. The incendiary, bravura dance of her heroines - Paquita, Kitri - was an example of performing skills and style.

In early 1903, Pavlova danced for the first time on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. Starts brilliant, but hard way Anna Pavlova in ballet, her triumphant performances in the cities of the Russian Empire.

The individuality of the ballerina, the style of her dance, the soaring jump prompted her partner, the future famous choreographer M. M. Fokin, to create "Chopiniana" to the music of F. Chopin (1907). These are stylizations in the spirit of the graceful revived engraving of the era of romanticism. In this ballet, she danced the Mazurka and the Seventh Waltz with V. F. Nijinsky (Young Man). Her partner Vaslav Nijinsky, although he danced the entire academic repertoire of the leading soloists, nevertheless, his individuality was revealed primarily in the ballets of M. M. Fokine.

Anna Pavlova.(1881-1931)

The first foreign tour of Anna Pavlova

Since 1908, Anna Pavlova began touring abroad.

Here is how Pavlova recalled her first tour: “The first trip was to Riga. From Riga we went to Helsingfors, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Prague and Berlin. Everywhere our tours were hailed as revelations of new art.

Many people imagine the life of a dancer to be frivolous. In vain. If the dancer does not keep herself in tight rein, she will not dance for a long time. She has to sacrifice herself for her art. Her reward is that she sometimes manages to make people forget for a moment their sorrows and worries.

I went with Russian ballet troupe to Leipzig, Prague and Vienna, we danced Tchaikovsky's lovely Swan Lake. Then I joined the Diaghilev troupe, who introduced Paris to Russian art.

Pavlova became the main participant in all of Sergei Diaghilev's Russian Seasons in Paris. Here she gained worldwide fame. She danced in ballets: "Pavilion of Armida", "Sylphs" and "Cleopatra" - under such names were "Chopiniana" and "Egyptian Nights". Pavlova has already performed all this repertoire in Russia. In the luxurious ensemble of the largest performing talents presented by Diaghilev in Paris, Anna occupied one of the first places.
But in the "Russian Seasons" Pavlova did not perform for long. She wanted creative freedom.

Anna Pavlova. Khud. Sorin Savely Abramovich. (1887-1953)

The first independent productions of Anna Pavlova

It was natural for Pavlova to try to stage it herself. She made such an attempt in 1909 at a performance at the Suvorinsky Theater in honor of the 75th anniversary of the owner, A. Suvorin. For her debut, Pavlova chose "Night" by Rubinstein. She appeared in a white long tunic with flowers in her hands and hair. Her eyes lit up when she held out her bouquet to someone. Flexible hands called out passionately, then timidly pulled away. Everything together turned into a monologue about insane passion. Pathetics was justified by the naive sincerity of feeling. The free movement of the body and arms gave the impression of improvisation, recalling Duncan's influence. But classical dance, including finger technique, was also present, diversifying and complementing expressive gestures. Independent creativity Pavlova was met with approval. The following numbers were "Dragonfly" by F. Kreisler, "Butterfly" by R. Drigo, "California Poppy".
Here, classical dance coexisted and intertwined with free plastique. The emotional state of the heroine united them.

In 1910, Anna Pavlova left the Mariinsky Theater, creating her own troupe. Pavlova included in her touring repertoire the ballets by Tchaikovsky and Glazunov, The Vain Precaution, Giselle, Coppelia, Paquita, and interesting concert numbers. The ballerina introduced all ballet lovers to Russian art. Russian choreographers and mostly Russian dancers worked in the troupe. With them, she created new choreographic miniatures, the most famous of which are "Night" and "Waltz-Caprice" to the music of A. Rubinstein and "Dragonfly" to the music of Kreisler.

With her troupe, Pavlova toured with triumphant success in many countries of the world. She was the first to open Russian ballet for America, where for the first time ballet performances began to give full fees.
“... From London, I went on tour to America, where I danced in
theater "Metropolitan". Of course, I am delighted with the reception given to me by the Americans. The newspapers published my portraits, articles about me, interviews with me, and - I must tell the truth - a bunch of nonsense stories about my life, my tastes and views. I often laughed, reading this fantastic lie and seeing myself as something I had never been - an eccentric and extraordinary woman. The power of imagination of American journalists is simply amazing.

From New York we went on a tour of the province. It was a real triumphal procession, but terribly tiring. I was invited to America next year, and I myself wanted to go, but I positively do not have enough strength for this jump across the continent - it breaks my nerves so terribly.

Her tour routes ran in Asia and the Far East. Hard work was hidden behind brilliant performances. Here, for example, is a list of performances by the Anna Pavlova troupe in the United States in December 1914: 31 performances in different cities - from Cincinnati to Chicago, and not a single day of rest. The same picture in the Netherlands in December 1927: daily performances in different cities - from Rotterdam to Groningen. And only one day of rest - December 31. For 22 years of endless tours, Pavlova traveled more than half a million kilometers by train, according to rough estimates, she gave about 9 thousand performances. It was really hard work.

There was a period when italian master Ninolini produced for Anna Pavlova an average of two thousand pairs of ballet shoes a year, and she barely had enough of them.

In addition to monstrous fatigue, foreign tours had other negative consequences. Pavlova's relationship with the Mariinsky Theater became complicated due to financial disagreements. The artist violated the terms of the contract with the management for the sake of a profitable trip to America and was forced to pay a penalty. The desire of the directorate to conclude a new contract with her ran into a demand to return the penalty. However, the theater was interested in the ballerina's performances. Steps were taken to settle the incident. On the initiative of the directorate, in 1913 Pavlova was awarded the honorary title of Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters and was awarded a gold medal. The directorate still insisted that Anna only perform in Russia.
In the spring of 1914, Pavlova visited home for the last time. The ballerina performed on May 31 at the People's House in St. Petersburg, on June 7 at the Pavlovsky railway station, on June 3 at the Mirror Theater of the Hermitage Garden in Moscow. The repertoire included The Dying Swan, Bacchanalia, and her other miniatures. An enthusiastic reception was addressed to the new Pavlova - an international "star", a visiting celebrity. The small, fragile ballerina, already accustomed to overly strenuous work, was 33 years old. It was the fifteenth season in her theatrical career, the middle of her stage life.

She never returned to her homeland. But Pavlova was not indifferent to the situation in Russia. She sent parcels in the difficult post-revolutionary years to students of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, translated large cash starving people in the Volga region, organized charity performances to support the needy in their homeland.

Great friendship and creative cooperation connected two outstanding masters of Russian ballet - Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Fokine. She performed the main roles in many of his ballets: A. Rubinstein's Vine, Chopiniana, Egyptian Nights, etc. As a result of the creative union of Pavlova and Fokine, works were created where the dance is subordinated to spiritual and expressive tasks. This is how "Chopiniana" and "Swan" appeared to the music of C. Saint-Saens, which became a poetic symbol of Russian choreography.
Especially for Pavlova's troupe, Mikhail Fokin staged "Preludes" to the music of F. Liszt and "The Seven Daughters of the Mountain Tsar" to the music of K. Spendiarov.

The small traveling troupe, of course, could not compete with the Mariinsky Theater either in the performing staff, or in musical culture, or in design. Losses were inevitable and very tangible, especially when referring to academic repertoire. Pavlova in such alterations treated music unceremoniously - she changed tempos, timbre colors, stopped numbers and inserted music from other composers. The only criterion was important for her - to awaken her creative imagination. And the ballerina, by virtue of her talent, often managed to overcome the obvious absurdities of the musical material to some extent.

All this was noticed with an experienced eye by the famous dancer of the Diaghilev troupe Sergei Lifar, who visited one of the performances of the ballerina:

“The Paris season of 1924 was especially rich and brilliant in musical and theatrical respects - as far as my poor means allowed me, I did not miss a single interesting concert, not a single interesting performance, and lived it, eagerly absorbing all the impressions. One of the most powerful and significant Parisian impressions was the performance of Anna Pavlova.

When Anna Pavlova appeared on the stage, it seemed to me that I had never in my life seen anything like that not human, but divine beauty and lightness, completely weightless airiness and grace, "fluffiness", which Anna Pavlova showed. From the first minute I was shocked and captivated by the simplicity, the ease of her plasticity: no fouettes, no virtuoso tricks - only beauty and only aerial gliding - so easy, as if she did not need to make any effort, as if she was divinely, Mozart gifted and added nothing to this most easy and most beautiful gift. I saw in Anna Pavlova not a dancer, but her genius, I bowed before this divine genius and for the first minutes I could not reason, I could not, I did not dare to see any shortcomings, no shortcomings - I saw a revelation of heaven and was not on earth ... But in during the performance, I was either in heaven or on earth: either the divine gestures of Anna Pavlova made me tremble with reverent delight, or for minutes I saw in her game-dance some kind of inappropriate excessive playfulness, something from antics, something from cheap stuff, and such places jarred unpleasantly.
During the intermission in the foyer I met Diaghilev—wherever I was this spring, I met him everywhere—and in response to his question how I liked Anna Pavlova, I could only murmur in ecstatic bewilderment: "Divine!" Brilliant! Perfectly!". Yes, Sergei Pavlovich did not even need to ask my opinion - it was written on my face. But neither to Diaghilev nor to anyone else did I dare to speak of my ambivalent impression, that certain places seemed to me cheap and swindling. I was sure that everyone would laugh at me and say that I did not understand anything and that I was blaspheming. Subsequently, I became convinced that I was not the only blasphemer - Diaghilev also blasphemed, who told me a lot about Anna Pavlova.

Personal life of Anna Pavlova

The personal life of the ballerina was not easy. However, Anna Pavlova considered this natural:

“Now I want to answer the question that is often asked to me: why do I not get married. The answer is very simple. A true artist, like a nun, is not entitled to lead the life most women desire. She cannot burden herself with worries about the family and the household, and should not demand from life the quiet family happiness that is given to the majority.
I see that my life is a single whole. To pursue the same goal unceasingly is the secret of success. What is success? It seems to me that it is not in the applause of the crowd, but rather in the satisfaction that you get from approaching perfection. I used to think that success is happiness. I was wrong. Happiness is a moth that charms for a moment and flies away.
Pavlova connected her life with Victor Dandre. A very contradictory person. Dandre is a mining engineer, in 1910 he was accused by the authorities of St. Petersburg of embezzlement of funds allocated for the construction of the Okhtinsky bridge. Anna Pavlova had to rush to his rescue and pay a considerable sum to release him. Despite a written undertaking not to leave, Dandre fled Russia after that and lived without a passport for many years.
At the same time, Dandre was one of the most capable impresario of his time, who for the first time understood the power of the press. He constantly arranged press conferences, invited photojournalists and newspapermen to Pavlova's speeches, gave numerous interviews related to her life and work. For example, he perfectly played up stories inspired by in a romantic way"Swan". Many photographs have been preserved that captured Anna Pavlova on the shore of the lake, on the mirror surface of which beautiful snow-white birds glide. Such a reservoir was in her estate "Ivy House" in England. Swans really lived there, and one of them, named Jack, was Anna Pavlova's favorite. He did not forget his mistress when she was on long trips. The photograph of Anna with a swan on her lap is widely known, his head resting trustingly on her shoulder. The photo was taken by the famous photographer Lafayette, whom Dandre specially invited to shoot.
But it was Dandre who tried to squeeze everything possible out of the world fame of the ballerina, organizing endless and very intense tours, not sparing her health. Ultimately, the unbearable load apparently led to her untimely death...

The last days of Anna Pavlova's life

On January 17, 1931, the famous ballerina arrived on tour in the Netherlands, where she was well known and loved. In honor of the "Russian Swan", the Dutch, famous for their flowers, bred a special variety of snow-white tulips and called them "Anna Pavlova". Until now, at flower exhibitions, you can admire their exquisite beauty. With a large bouquet of these flowers, Anna was met at the station by the Dutch impresario Ernst Krauss. But the ballerina felt bad and immediately went to the Hotel des Endes, where she was assigned the Japanese Salon with a bedroom, which later became known as the Anna Pavlova Salon. Apparently, the artist caught a bad cold while traveling by train in winter France. Moreover, as it turned out, the night train she was traveling from England to Paris collided with a freight train. The trunk that had fallen hit her hard in the ribs. Only close friends Anna told about this incident, although she complained of pain to many.
A doctor was urgently called to the hotel, who discovered acute pleurisy in the ballerina. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands sent Pavlova de Jong's personal physician. After examining her, he came to the following conclusion: “Madame, you have pleurisy. An operation is required. I would advise removing one rib to make it easier to suck the liquid. In response to this, Dandre exclaimed: “How so! After all, she won’t be able to dance tomorrow!” Indeed, posters were plastered all over The Hague announcing that “on January 19, the last performance in the Netherlands of the greatest ballerina of our time, Anna Pavlova, with her big ballet, will take place.” This was followed by a long tour of North and Latin America, Far East. But this was not destined to come true.

Dandre decided to invite another doctor. By telegram, the doctor Zalevsky, who had previously treated Anna, was urgently summoned from Paris. And the ballerina was getting worse. Apparently, then the legend of the “dying swan” was born, which Victor Dandre cites in his memoirs. Anna Pavlova, the memoirist assures, wanted to go on stage again at any cost. “Bring me my swan costume,” she said. Those were supposedly her last words...

However, the reality was much more prosaic and tragic. This was told by Anna Pavlova's servant Marguerite Letienne, the doctors who were at her bedside. They recall that the ballerina invited some members of her troupe to her place and gave them instructions, believing that, despite her illness, the performances should take place, especially in Belgium for the needs of the Red Cross. Then she got worse. Everyone except the maid left the room. Anna, nodding at an expensive dress recently bought in Paris from a famous couturier, said to Marguerite: “I wish I had spent this money on my children.” She meant orphans who had long been living at her expense in one of the mansions. After that, the patient fell into a coma. Zalevsky, who had arrived, tried to pump out fluid from the pleura and lungs with the help of a drainage tube, but it was all in vain. Anna never regained consciousness. It is believed that on the night of January 22-23, 1931, she died from acute blood poisoning brought by an insufficiently well-disinfected drainage tube ...

Yakovlev Alexander Evgenievich. "Portrait of the ballerina Anna Pavlova."

After Pavlova's death

The Russian colony in Paris wanted Pavlova to be buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery, where a beautiful monument could be erected to her. But Dandre spoke in favor of Anna being cremated. While touring in India, she was fascinated by Indian funeral ceremonies, during which the body of the deceased is burned on a funeral pyre. She told loved ones that she would like to be cremated. “So later it will be easier to return my ashes to dear Russia,” she seemed to say. Dandre discussed this issue with the impresario Krauss, and they decided to consult with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in The Hague by the priest Rozanov, because according to church canons only burials in the cemetery are supposed to be. Given the situation, the priest had no objection to the cremation...

Victor Dandre, despite all his assurances, was not the official husband of Anna Pavlova, although this is stated in his will and the urn with his ashes is installed next to Anna's urn. She herself never called him her husband, they did not have a common bank account. After the death of Anna, Dandre declared his claims to Aini House. When the ballerina's mother, rejecting these encroachments, filed a lawsuit against him, Dandre could not produce any marriage certificates or wedding photographs, referring to the fact that the documents were not preserved after the revolution in Russia. The lawyer then recalled that he had previously spoken about marrying Pavlova in America. But even here, Dandre was unable to provide documents and even name the place of the wedding. He lost the process, and he had to leave the Ivy House.
Whether Dandre was Anna Pavlova's husband or not, but in his will the text of which is given in the book, it says: “I instruct my attorneys to buy niches 5791 and 3797 in the Goulders Green crematorium as a place for urns containing my ashes and the ashes of my beloved wife Anna, known as Anna Pavlova. I authorize my attorneys to consent to the transfer of my wife's ashes and, if they deem it possible, also my ashes to Russia, if at any time the Russian government, or the government of any major Russian province, will seek the transfer and give my attorneys satisfactory assurances that that the ashes of Anna Pavlova will receive due honor and respect.

The legend of the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova

Pavlova is unique. She did not have high-profile titles, did not leave any followers or school. After her death, her troupe was dissolved, property was sold. Only the legend of the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova remained, after whom prizes and international awards are named. Feature and documentary films are dedicated to her (Anna Pavlova, 1983 and 1985). The French choreographer R. Petit staged the ballet "My Pavlova" to team music. The numbers of her repertoire are danced by the leading ballerinas of the world. And Pavlov's "The Dying Swan" was immortalized by Galina Ulanova, Ivet Shovire, Maya Plisetskaya.

Great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.

The leaf was spinning, but so uncertainly,
I was fascinated by smooth movements
Harsh wind, spring wind,
Maple leaf - graceful Pavlova.

It was painted not only with frost,
He was wrapped in a young rainbow.
A leaf fluttered in this haze of pink
And answered the world with sonorous strings.

The leaf wandered... Crowned with triumph
This path was like a wave of fire,
Sweet Pavlova! Strong woman!-
She dreamed of a clear dawn over the Neva.

There were arms of Latin America,
New York and Paris applauded,
All the impresario fought in hysterics
Eagerly sought to raise their prestige.

The leaf tossed on the edge, desperately,
He rushed back to his native shores,
Only a melody unsteady and sad
In a forgotten picture, it will open to us ...

The maple has already dropped all the crimson leaves,
The forest is enchanted by ancient legends
Autumn wind, severe wind,
The leaf flashed us magical facets.

The future ballerina was born on February 12, 1881 in the village of Ligovo near St. Petersburg in the family of a seamstress (who had to earn extra money as a laundress) Lyubov Pavlova. She was born prematurely and miraculously survived. Anya did not remember her official father, a retired soldier of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Matvey Pavlov.

Poor girl's rich childhood

Rumor considered her the real father of Lazar Polyakov, a banker and younger brother Russian "railway king" Samuil Polyakov. Perhaps it's just a legend. But she, in any case, explains some of the inconsistencies between the poor childhood of the soldier’s daughter and the two-story dacha rented for Anya’s grandmother in Ligov, an aristocratic suburb of the Northern capital, where theatrical bohemia and the then nouveaux riches gathered for the summer. Yes, and frequent visits to the Mariinsky Theater and training at the Imperial Ballet School in the capital also cost money. And a lot.

In ballet from the second time

However, the sickly girl was admitted to the ballet school only from the second entry. Anya knew from the age of eight that she would become a dancer, having barely visited the ballet at the Mariinsky Theater with her mother. Then she declared: "I will dance the Sleeping Beauty in this theater!" However, the first attempt to enter the school ended in failure. The second attempt also nearly failed. The fate of Anya was decided by the chairman admission committee famous choreographer Marius Petipa. After watching Anya Pavlova's dance number, the grey-whiskered master issued a verdict: "Fluff in the wind - it will fly on stage."

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Clumsy Pavlova, nicknamed Mop

The school maintained a discipline that even the barracks would envy! Getting up at eight, dousing with cold water, praying, breakfast, and then eight hours of grueling practice at the ballet barre, interrupted only by a second breakfast (coffee with crackers), a dinner that did not satisfy hunger, and a daily hour-long walk on the fresh air. At half past nine in the evening, the students were required to be in their beds. Plus competition, jealousy, intrigue.

Anna, with her strange posture and poor health, was pretty hard on her flexible, curvy girlfriends - one nickname Mop was worth something!

In the technique of dance, Anna was inferior to many ballerinas, including former graduates of the same school - the stars of Russian ballet Matilda Kshesinskaya, Tamara Karsavina and Olga Preobrazhenskaya. She could not “scroll” all 32 fouettes, as Kshesinskaya did. But on the other hand, the fragile and airy Pavlova had no competition in terms of artistry and ballet improvisation. She did not work, but danced - selflessly and with inspiration.

This impressed the strict examiners during the graduation performance. It took place in the spring of 1899 and became Pavlova's debut at the same time as a "luminary" - as the dancers enrolled in the troupe of the imperial theater were then called.

Triumph of the coryphee

Anna's career developed rapidly. She quickly moved from the corps de ballet to the role of the second soloist, and starting from the anxious and vague 1905, she began to be called a ballerina. The prophecy of the experienced Petipa came true - now all the capital's newspapers did not spare excellent epithets addressed to the rising star, noting that with the appearance of Pavlova on the stage, Russian ballet gained a new breath.

The only love of Anna Pavlova

Fortunately for Anna, her first patron turned out to be the first and only love of her life. The son of a Russified French emigrant, Victor Dandre, was handsome, rich, distinguished by refined manners. At first, he patronized the novice ballerina out of sports passion. He rented a luxurious apartment for Anna and set up a dance class in it, which at that time no aspiring actress could boast of. He did not show any serious intentions towards Pavlova, but insisted that she should become a star of the first magnitude. And then a non-binding relationship turned around for Dandre herself real love. And at the same time the main business of life! Because if there was then, at the very dawn of "show business", a super-successful international art project called Anna Pavlova, then it was promoted by none other than the permanent impresario of the ballerina Victor Dandre.

Sergei Diaghilev and his seasons

In 1909, the ballerina's patron introduced his protege and lover to the famous theater entrepreneur Sergei Diaghilev, the organizer of the triumphal Russian seasons in Paris. Diaghilev immediately invited Anna to dance in his productions, and Dandre undertook to buy stunning costumes for the future prima of the now Parisian stage. He did not back down from his word, but as a result of these and other expenses, he got into debt, which led the unlucky sponsor to a debtor's prison. There were rumors that, in addition to spending, Viktor was also responsible for embezzlement of state funds ...

“A proper husband is to a wife what music is to a dance”

Be that as it may, yesterday's prosperous official, dandy and philanthropist did not have money at hand to make a deposit. And while the exhausting process lasted, which took a whole year, Anna left for Paris alone ...

Anna Pavlova saves her beloved

Evil tongues, of course, did not fail to comment on her departure: everything is clear, love for the patron disappeared along with his money! Anna didn't make excuses. But immediately after the triumph in Paris, she signed a very profitable, enslaving contract with a well-known London theater agency, and immediately sent the advance payment received for future tours to Victor. In Paris, Anna and Victor secretly got married.

Secret marriage and family tours

In 1912, Anna and Dandre organized their own troupe, which traveled around countries and continents for two decades, increasing the army of the ballerina's fans. The secret couple rented the Ivy House estate in London with a small park, once owned by the famous artist, the English forerunner of impressionism, William Turner. Anna's heart entirely belonged to the ballet and Dandra. She loved him alone all her life and repeatedly repeated: "A suitable husband for a wife is the same as music for a dance."

Ballet in the barn, in the rain and in the circus arena

Pavlova's natural talent was not to be occupied, and her efficiency, which reached the point of self-torture, amazed everyone. Fulfilling the same onerous contract, the ballerina traveled over twenty countries in less than ten years, sometimes performing in the most unsuitable places for ballet - at open stage in the pouring rain, in the circus arena, in the shed on hastily knocked together boards, in the variety show after tap dancers and trained monkeys. The Russian star performed with equal dedication on the best theater stages and in front of schoolchildren from the American backwoods, in front of Mexican shepherds and Australian miners.

Tulips and dessert in honor of the great ballerina

Mexican machos threw sombreros at her feet, Indians showered lotus flowers, and the Nordic restrained Swedes during the first foreign tour in 1907, silently, so as not to disturb the actress’s peace, escorted her carriage to the hotel itself. The Spanish king over the years sent flowers to her every performance - regardless of where she performed at that moment. In Holland, a special variety of tulips, Anna Pavlova, was bred in her honor. And in Australia, they came up with an exquisite delicacy - an airy dessert of meringue, whipped cream and wild berries, called Pavlova (with an emphasis on the letter “o”).

“If I don’t have time to live, then I must die on my feet”

She was no stranger to going on stage with a fever, sprained ligaments, and once during a tour in the United States, the ballerina performed her part even with a broken leg! The newspapers wrote that Pavlova wears out two thousand pairs of ballet shoes a year.

The dying swan who did not spare himself

The crowning achievement of Anna Pavlova's career was the same "Dying Swan", created in St. Petersburg by choreographer Mikhail Fokin to the music of Saint-Saens. The name of the dance number, alas, turned out to be prophetic. Anna was persuaded many times to take a vacation, to rest. The ballerina only sluggishly fought back. “If I don’t have time to live, then I must die on the go, on my feet,” she somehow dropped.

This was said in the autumn of 1930. In January, a tour in The Hague awaited her, but on the way to Holland, the ballerina slipped through the train, she fell ill. The doctors diagnosed him with the flu. In those days when there were no affordable and effective antibiotics, such a sentence should have prepared for any outcome ... In addition, Pavlova refused to take the medicines prescribed by the doctor. As a result, pneumonia began, which turned into pleurisy. After 3 days, the ballerina died, not having lived 8 days before her 50th birthday.

The legend of the death of Anna Pavlova

A legend wanders from book to book that a few hours before her death, Anna Pavlova came to her senses, sat up in bed, crossed herself and asked: “Prepare my Swan costume!” Such beautiful legends accompanied her all her life - they did not leave Pavlov even in the last minutes.
But it is known for sure that the hotel room in The Hague, where the Russian actress died, was never rented out to anyone by the management. And in the city theater for many years, on the anniversary of Pavlova's death, a strange performance was going on: the curtain rose, the music of Saint-Saens sounded, and only a single spotlight beam moved across the empty stage, following the movements of an invisible dancer. The audience these days watched the phantom dance standing and in complete silence.

She was the very Soul of the Dance.

With your favorite tame swan

There is a lot of information about the ballerina Anna Pavlova on the Internet. Her biography is woven from legends. And it's hard to find the truth. But maybe not? After all, Anna Pavlova herself is the personification of a legend. I want to dwell a little on the biography of Anna Pavlova and show a lot of photos of the ballerina. And not just photos

Anna Pavlova - biography

Anna Pavlova, the future ballerina, was born in the winter of January 31, 1881 in the northern capital of Russia. As a girl, Anya knew that she would dance. In her autobiography, she recalls that, despite poverty, her mother tried to pamper her daughter on holidays. And one day, when Nyura was 8 years old, her mother went with her to the Mariinsky Theater. From the very first sounds of the orchestra, the girl was captured by beauty, and after the performance she announced that she would dance like the “sleeping beauty” herself from the ballet.

The beginning of the creative path of Anna Pavlova

For two years she was not accepted into the Imperial Ballet School (she did not grow up), but at the age of 10 she fulfilled her dream. Few people could withstand the harsh charter of the school, iron discipline, but Anna was the best student. Hardworking and persistent. After graduation, the girl got to the Mariinsky. Ballet lovers admired her dance. A thin ankle, a high instep, a fragile physique - all this distinguished her from other ballerinas.

There have never been such “airy” ballerinas in the history of ballet. This fragility and unusualness allowed her to bypass the corps de ballet (all graduates started with it) and even get minor solo parts. Praises and comparisons sounded in the press: “Flame and ashes”, “Enchanting tenderness and grace”, “This is sparkling champagne and intoxicating air”, “Pavlova seemed to have fluttered from engravings of the 19th century” ...

"The Dying Swan" by Anna Pavlova

A great creative friendship connected the ballerina and Mikhail Mikhailovich Fokin. Mikhail Fokin is considered the founder of romantic ballet. He created completely the new kind performance: a dramatic one-act ballet. His "Swan", this dance about the fragility of happiness, became calling card ballerinas. The dance was born very quickly - a few minutes before the charity concert. AT original intention the ballerina just floated serenely across the stage. Her talking hands fascinated.

But then Anna blew up these 130 seconds of dance, coloring it with the tragedy of death. The flutter of wings - hands made an indelible impression on everyone. The ballerina attached a ruby ​​brooch to her chest as a symbol of the wound, and this dance became known as the "Dying Swan".

Saint-Saens, after watching the performance, confessed to Anna: “It was after I saw you in The Swan that I realized that I composed very beautiful music”

Anna Pavlova Video “The Dying Swan”

Another well-known performance, created by M. Fokin specifically for Anna Pavlova, is a stylization in the spirit of an amazing revived engraving of romanticism. The ballerina danced in this ballet with Vaslav Nijinsky. Her soaring jump, her full devotion to the dance, amazing improvisations on the move made this performance unforgettable.

Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova

Only five graduates of that time received the title of "ballerina" and Anna was one of them. The highest spirituality and amazing plasticity made her a great world-class ballerina. Each dance was unique, since the ballerina could never repeat all those “pas” that were impulsively born to her.

Anna Pavlova has been touring abroad since 1908. world fame she received in Paris, becoming the main participant and favorite of the public in all of Sergei Diaghilev's Russian Seasons. Dancer of the Diaghilev troupe, famous Sergei Lifar recalled that he “saw a revelation of the sky…”, “never in my life have I seen anything like that not human, but divine beauty and lightness, completely weightless airiness and grace…”

It was said that everything the ballerina touched took on the features of sophistication.

Anna Pavlova very soon wanted a free flight and in 1909 she independently staged the play. This performance was "Night" by Rubinstein. A monologue about passion, about crazy love, the audience met with a standing ovation. In 1910, the ballerina left the Mariinsky Theater and created her own troupe. In addition to her performances, she included the ballets of Glazunov and Tchaikovsky in her repertoire. The tour was a triumph. She set herself the goal of making the whole world aware of Russian ballet, which is probably why the ballerina found herself in such corners of the world where “a foot in pointe shoes” had never set foot before.

Portrait of Anna Pavlova as a Muse. V. Stemberg, 1909

In India, they knelt before her and showered them with lotus petals, considering her the deity of dance (after all, she made even elephants do “pa”)

As a token of admiration, the Mexicans threw a sombrero at her feet, in Australia they came up with a luxurious dessert Pavlova cake, the monarch of Spain himself sent bouquets to her, in Holland they brought out the most delicate white tulips and called the variety Anna Pavlova. It was the troupe of Anna Pavlova who showed the Russian ballet to the world
In her dance there was the fire of life, awe, grace and inspiration. She lived in dance.

The character of the ballerina

The character of the ballerina was very difficult. There are many rumors, sometimes contradictory… Some say that she was utterly capricious and exalted, her emotions overflowed, she could bring conductors to a nervous breakdown, stomp their feet, get angry at partners and keep the entire troupe in a tight grip.

Others claimed that she was attentive and kind, she took care of all the members of her troupe and personally could apply iodine mesh to the legs of the dancers. But the troupe adored her and touchingly guarded her like a beloved child.

Anna Pavlova and Victor Dandre

Anna Pavlova went through life with Victor Dandre, a descendant of an old French family. He was distinguished by endurance, composure, but most importantly, big love to the ballerina, he could withstand any whims of his beloved. But the life of lovers was still stormy. They quarreled, reconciled, parted. In 1910, Dandre fled St. Petersburg, as he was accused of embezzlement. Anna helped to rescue him and facilitated his escape abroad, from there he never returned to Russia. She paid a huge amount. Perhaps that is also why she did not spare herself, the contracts were enslaving, the tour was endless and intense. For 22 years of constant touring, the ballerina gave almost 9 thousand performances. Sometimes in a year she lacked two thousand pairs of pointe shoes, which were made for her by an Italian master.

After her death, Victor Dandre wrote a book, the lines of which are full of tenderness and pain from the loss of a loved one. Anna's mood swings, he explained her strong emotional stress and forgave her everything.

Victor Dandre was a famous impresario of his time. He organized real photo shoots of the ballerina. In the vicinity of London, an ivy-covered house was bought with a lake and, of course, with swans,

here Anna often posed for magazines.

The ballerina was very fond of animals,

her pet dogs were constantly with her even on tour,

and her favorite bird slept on her chest under a duvet.
Anna, even on tour, chose a house surrounded by a garden, and loved to take care of the flowers.

by © Bettmann/CORBIS

Anna Pavlova was able to create ephemeral creatures on stage that could float in the air.
She gave her whole soul to dance. It was unusual and amazing.

She could go on stage completely ill, with a temperature, and once she went out with a broken leg. And she danced at full strength, according to eyewitnesses. Art, she believed, is only beautiful and the viewer should not see a mortal person on stage with his problems. She forgot herself in the dance.
During the tour, Pavlova caught a cold and fell ill with pleurisy. The ballerina refused the operation, because she had a performance ahead of her. The disease turned out to be fatal. On the night of January 23, 1931, 7 days before her fiftieth birthday, the ballerina left. By beautiful legend her last words were "Get my Swan costume ready." She was preparing for the next stage appearance ...

Quotes by Anna Pavlova

“For a wife, a husband, like for a dance, is music.”

A real actor must know everything about love, and if necessary, be able to live without it.

A true actress must be able to sacrifice herself to art.
She, like a nun, has no right to live like this,
how most women want to lead their lives.

When I was a child and walking among the pines, I thought happiness was success. How wrong I was!
Happiness is a small moth that enchants for just a moment and immediately flies away.

Success does not consist in the applause of the hall, but in that joyful satisfaction,
which you experience as you approach perfection.

Russian ballet dancer

Little is known about the true life of Anna Pavlova. She herself wrote an excellent book, but this book dealt more with the quivering and bright secrets of her art, which contained a lot of improvisation, than with her biography itself. Her husband and impresario Victor Dandre also wrote a beautiful and expressive book about her, where a reflection of a living feeling trembled and the pain of a heart stunned by the sudden loss of a dear and beloved being. But this book is just a small touch to the mysterious that was, sparkled, shimmered in Anna Pavlova, which was her very essence, her breath - Inspiration that lived in her entire creative nature!

Probably, the secret of Pavlova's difference from other dancers who shone on the stage before and after her lay in the unique individuality of her character. Contemporaries said that, looking at Pavlova, they saw not dancing, but the embodiment of their dream of dancing. She seemed airy and unearthly as she flew across the stage. There was something childish, pure, inconsistent with her speech in her speech. real life. She chirped like a bird, flashed like a child, wept and laughed lightly, going from one to the other instantly. She was always like this: both at 15 and at 45.

Newspapers devoted magnificent reviews to her: “Pavlova is a cloud soaring above the earth, Pavlova is a flame that flashes and fades, this autumn leaf, driven by a gust of icy wind ... ".

“Flexible, graceful, musical, with a full of life and fire facial expressions, she surpasses everyone with her amazing airiness. How quickly and magnificently this bright, versatile talent flourished, ”the press spoke enthusiastically about Anna Pavlova’s performances.

One of the ballerina's friends and devoted followers, Natalya Vladimirovna Trukhanova, later recalled with sincere bitterness: “How I always regretted that I could not sketch her Dance! It was something unique. She just lived in it, you can't say otherwise. She was the very Soul of the Dance. Only now the Soul is hardly expressible in words ..!

The image that immortalized the ballerina is, of course, the Swan. At first he was not dying. Choreographer and friend Nikolai Fokin came up with for Anna concert number to the music of Saint-Saens in just a few minutes, improvising with her. At first, the Swan, in a weightless tutu trimmed with fluff, simply floated in serenity. But then Anna Pavlova added the tragedy of untimely death to the famous 130 seconds of dance, and the number turned into a masterpiece, and a “wound” shone on a snow-white tutu - a ruby ​​brooch.

When Saint-Saens saw Pavlova dancing his "Swan", he managed to meet her in order to say: "Madame, thanks to you I realized that I wrote beautiful music!"

A small choreographic composition "The Dying Swan" became her signature number. She performed it, according to contemporaries, completely supernaturally. A spotlight beam descended onto the stage, huge or small, and followed the performer. A figurine dressed in swan down appeared with its back to the audience on pointe shoes.

She tossed about in intricate zigzags of death agony and did not descend from pointe shoes until the end of the number.

Her strength weakened, she departed from life and left it in an immortal pose, lyrically depicting doom, surrender to the winner - death.

Anna included The Dying Swan in all her programs, and no matter who the audience was - sophisticated balletomanes or ordinary people who saw the ballet for the first time - this number performed by her always shocked the audience. M. Fokin wrote that the "Swan" performed by Pavlova was proof that the dance can and should not only please the eye, it must penetrate the soul. Her dance, impressionistic in nature, was a plastic embodiment of music, figurative and poetic, Pavlova's dance was spiritual and sublime, and therefore it could not be repeated and copied. The secret of her success was not in the performance of the pas, but in the emotional fullness and spirituality of the dance. “The secret of my popularity is in the sincerity of my art,” Pavlova repeated more than once. And she was right.

Anna Pavlova idolized art, loved it with such a passion that only women were probably able to relate to it. silver age". Not a single museum in the world was left without her attention. The Renaissance seemed to her the most beautiful era in the history of culture. Pavlova's favorite sculptors were Michelangelo and Donatello, and her favorite artists were Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and Sodoma. And in ballet, her tastes were formed under the influence of the pure lines of Renaissance art. All her partners had athletic figures similar to Michelangelo's "David".

Anna Pavlova and Algeranoff in `Russian Dance`

Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin

However, it would be wrong to think that the great Pavlova was exclusively an adherent of the St. Petersburg school of classical ballet and therefore rejected the new searches for Paris and Monte Carlo. No, some of her choreographic miniatures: "California poppy" with the image of red flying petals.

"Dragonfly", which the ballerina performed in a suit with wings in the style of art nouveau.

"Assyrian dance", reminiscent of revived bas-reliefs Ancient Babylon- clearly related to the search for a new genre.

She even visited the school of Mary Wigman in Dresden, champion of the new movement in dance. Meanwhile, Pavlova liked to repeat that the beauty of the dance meant everything to her, and the ugliness meant nothing (and she categorically rejected everything that seemed ugly to her, and, in particular, some plastic elements of the new choreography). According to her judgment, beauty gave people happiness and brought them closer to perfection.

Anna was also interested in the avant-garde attractive dance of the talented American Isadora Duncan, she visited her studio more than once, but she herself continued tirelessly to promote the unfading art of Russian classical ballet wherever she could and where at least a little bit the living conditions allowed! Anna Pavlova not only brought people her favorite art, she paved new paths along which classical ballet came into the lives of different peoples. For tours, Pavlova chose countries such as India, Egypt, China, was in Japan, Burma, Malaya, Cuba, the Philippines, performed in front of audiences who had never seen ballet before her. The dancer set herself the goal of proving that classical ballet is not an art that is accessible only to a few experts.

Pavlova selflessly spoke in the schools of small American towns in a distant province, in front of Mexican shepherds, residents of mountain Indian villages. The Mexicans threw their sombreros at her feet as a sign of admiration, the Indians showered her with lotus flowers, the restrained Swedes escorted her carriage to the hotel, after a performance at the Royal opera house, the Dutch loved her so much that they brought out a special variety of tulips and called it "Anna Pavlova".

A. Pavlova in New Zealand

With all her devotion to the art of ballet, Anna Pavlova, of course, remained a man of her era. Like any beautiful woman, she loved the world of fashion, willingly photographed and even posed in the furs of famous fashion houses in Berlin and Paris in the 1910s and 1920s. So, in February 1926 in Paris, she posed for the cover of the fashion magazine L'officiel in a pan-velvet coat trimmed with sables from the Drekol house.

In England, she advertised shoes for the H. & M. Rayne shoe company, which she wore, according to her, both on stage and in life. The “a la Pavlova” clothing style became so popular that it brought the Pavlova atlas, released in 1921, to the fashion world. It was Pavlova who introduced the fashion for Spanish-draped embroidered Manila shawls with tassels, which she knew how to wear so gracefully. The ballerina also loved hats. Her pickiness when shopping for outfits is legendary. Baron Dandre perfectly described the finickyness of the prima in choosing each new thing.

She came up with a special style of clothing for herself - multi-layered thin bedspreads with which she wrapped her body.

Anna Pavlova patronized Russian fashion houses in Paris: one of her personal couturiers was Pierre Pitoev. It is significant that the program of the performances of the Pavlova troupe in the Parisian "Theater of the Champs Elysees" in May 1928 was decorated with an advertisement for the fashion house of Prince Felix Yusupov - "IRFE".

Programs of Anna Pavlova's speeches:

1915

Pavlova's art is inseparable from the work of the remarkable theater artists of her time. In 1913, according to the sketches of Boris Anisfeld, fabulously beautiful costumes and scenery for Fokine's ballet "Preludes" to the music of Liszt were made. Konstantin Korovin created scenery for Pavlova for two performances. These were "Snowflakes" - a fragment from the first act of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker", staged in her troupe as an independent one-act ballet - and "Don Quixote", the first act of which the ballerina danced during her 1925 American tour. The costumes for Minuet, The Dying Swan and The Musical Moment were designed by Leon Bakst, while Pavlova's Russian costume was designed by the talented Sergei Solomko, the favorite artist of Emperor Nicholas II. Mstislav Dobuzhinsky was the author of scenery and costumes for her Fairy Dolls. Subsequently, however, they were replaced by the design of Sergei Sudeikin. Contemporaries noted the stage resemblance of Pavlova's The Puppet Fairy with Diaghilev's La Boutique Fantasque (The Fancy Shop), an old Viennese ballet that performed on the stages of many European theaters at the beginning of the 20th century. The performance "Invitation to the Dance" was designed by Nikolai Benois (son of Alexandra Benois). In 1917, Anna Pavlova's repertoire included the Egyptian Ballet staged by Ivan Khlyustin to music by Verdi and Luigini. The design for it was created by Ivan Bilibin. Bilibin designed for the Pavlova troupe the production of "Russian Fairy Tale" based on the plot of "The Golden Cockerel" in the choreography of Lavrenty Novikov.

Somov K. Costume design for Columbine for Anna Pavlova in "Harlequinade" (b., watercolor, pencil); 1909

Leon (Samoilovitch) Bakst "Diana" (Costume Design for Anna Pavlova) 1910

"The Butterfly" (Costume Design for Anna Pavlova) 1913

J. Rous Paget (Costume Design for Anna Pavlova), 1926

In the costume of the Doll Fairy based on sketches by Lev Bakst. With Anna Pavlova ballet scene a new ideal of beauty has come: the puffy Venuses of the Petipa era were replaced by disembodied Sylphs

Anna Pavlova's activity goes far beyond her performing arts. The routes of her travels, which crossed all the continents of the earth, were the routes along which Russian choreographic culture entered the life of the peoples of different countries. In the person of Anna Pavlova, the Russian ballet school received worldwide fame and recognition.

And where did she want to live most of all, migrant, a wandering ballerina who remained Russian to the end in everything? “Somewhere in Russia,” Pavlova invariably answered, but her desire remained an impossible dream.

Her English mansion Ivy House "the house covered with ivy" met guests with a pond with swans, among which was her favorite - the snow-white and proud handsome Jack (he, like a dog, followed his mistress through the garden, not being afraid to take their hands a treat).

With swans, the ballerina loved to be photographed. Her picture is known, where the photographer beat the actual resemblance - the bend of the swan's neck and the flexibility of the female ballet figure.

Pavlova, unlike other outstanding ballerinas, did not pass on her repertoire to her followers, and not because she did not want to do this or because she did not have students - in England she organized an entire ballet school and paid a lot of attention to her pupils, and professional, and human. Her art, as Andrei Levinson, the best ballet critic of the emigration, accurately noted, "was born and died with her - in order to dance like Pavlova, you had to be Pavlova."

Her life in dance could be called a feat. So they named her later. But she did not perceive it as a feat at all. She simply lived, as if she was ready to dance forever with her troupe, who adored everything in her: style of clothing, hats, shoes, behavior, breakdowns, whims, gait, manner of speaking and laughing, and touchingly protecting her, like her beloved star child ... Child . She was him, a child fascinated by ballet since childhood. She was not going to die, for her death did not exist, because she managed to stop time in an elegant run across the stage, in a slow graceful step of her unique "Swan", in a romantic circling of a transparent Sylph, in slow dance gracefully - crazy Giselle. Even leaving forever, on the gloomy morning of January 23, 1931, in the heat and feverish delirium of an unexpected, and, it seemed, trifling influenza, sharply complicated by fleeting pneumonia, Anna was preparing for her next appearance on stage ... According to legend, her last quiet words in delirium were addressed to the dresser of the troupe gathered at the bedside: “Prepare my Swan costume!”

... Ballet, unlike literature, painting, music, art is fragile, momentary, existing only "here and now." The art of Anna Pavlova fascinated and captivated. And time had no power over him. It would seem that classical dance - pirouettes, batmans, plie, pas de bure - everything is well known, but the brilliant Pavlova could express a lively feeling, a whimsical change of mood, a play of fantasy with the help of ballet pas. And no matter how much they think about the secrets of her performance, the mysteries and mysteries of her art, they remain unsolved.

About Anna Pavlova, a documentary film "Without the right to take" was shot.

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Used materials:

Materials of the site www.ricolor.org (Pavlova Anna. The story of life and love)
Text of the article "Anna Pavlova", author S. Shevtsova
Materials of the magazine "Art" No. 18/2008.
Materials of the magazine "Women's Petersburg", 2002.
V. Dandre, book “Anna Pavlova. Life story"