Nadezhda

Well, yes, she had her beliefs concening beauty and grace in dance. And I have to agree, she was an outstanding dancer. She could do many more that just two pirouettes.(Than, what about 32 fouettes in Odlie's solo ???) It is what she believed to be graceful or not. But let us leave this decision to her. A very philosophical dancer and a person with a clear look on her future she relied on her talent and it payed off for her, what again prooves her great talent.So, Nydancer, it's really grat to have someone that is of the same opinion here.

Hope you enjoy your day,

Nadezhda

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"The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing... there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words. There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. This is the dancer's justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art."

~Doris Humphrey, 1937

It was my pleasure, Nydancer86! I'm so very glad to find some people that like her too. That does not apply to people who saw her, but to people, who DID NOT see her and dislike her because of her belief, that doing more than two pirouettes does not look beautiful. I guess we are being unfair - everyone's view of beauty varies and I consider this completely insane; to judge people, when you do not even know them.

I do not claim, however that I saw Pavlova dance, or that I knew her in private. I just dislike the feeling of being criticised when you were a complete stranger to the person who judges you.

No offence,

Nadezhda

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"The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing... there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words. There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. This is the dancer's justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art."

~Doris Humphrey, 1937

Hello again!

I've found this interesting thing on the net. To be more specific on http://www.aha.ru/~vladmo/great.html . As it is not right in front of your nose when you enter the site, I quotated it. I hope you'll find it interesting.

Carpe diem,

Nadezhda

Pavlova, Anna

in full ANNA PAVLOVNA PAVLOVA (b. Jan. 31 [Feb. 12, New Style], 1881, St. Petersburg, Russia--d. Jan. 23, 1931, The Hague, Neth.), Russian ballerina, the most celebrated dancer of her time.

Pavlova studied at the Imperial School of Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre from 1891, joined the Imperial Ballet in 1899, and became a prima ballerina in 1906. In 1909 she went to Paris on the historic tour of the Ballets Russes. After 1913 she danced independently with her own company throughout the world.

The place and time of Pavlova's birth could hardly have been better for a child with an innate talent for dancing. Tsarist Russia maintained magnificent imperial schools for the performing arts. Entry was by examination, and, although Pavlova's mother was poor--Anna's father had died when she was two years old--the child was accepted for training at the Imperial School of Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1891.  

Following ballet tradition, Pavlova learned her art from teachers who were themselves great dancers. She graduated to the Imperial Ballet in 1899 and rose steadily through the grades to become prima ballerina in 1906. By this time she had already danced Giselle with considerable success.

Almost immediately, in 1907, the pattern of her life began to emerge. That year, with a few other dancers, she went on a European tour to Riga, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, and Prague. She was acclaimed, and another tour took place in 1908. In 1909 the impresario Sergey Diaghilev staged a historic season of Russian ballet in Paris, and Pavlova appeared briefly with the company there and later in London. But her experience of touring with a small group had given her a taste for independence, and she never became part of Diaghilev's closely knit Ballets Russes. Her destiny was not, as was theirs, to innovate but simply to show the beauties of classical ballet throughout the world. While she was still taking leave from the Mariinsky Theatre, she danced in New York City and London in 1910 with Mikhail Mordkin.

Once she left the Imperial Ballet in 1913, her frontiers were extended. For the rest of her life, with various partners (including Laurent Novikov and Pierre Vladimirov) and companies, she was a wandering missionary for her art, giving a vast number of people their introduction to ballet. Whatever the limitations of the rest of the company, which inevitably was largely a well-trained, dedicated band of young disciples, Pavlova's own performances left those who watched them with a lasting memory of disciplined grace, poetic movement, and incarnate magic. Her quality was, above all, the powerful and elusive one of true glamour.

Pavlova's independent tours, which began in 1914, took her to remote parts of the world. These tours were managed by her husband, Victor Dandrй. The repertoire of Anna Pavlova's company was in large part conventional. They danced excerpts or adaptations of Mariinsky successes such as Don Quixote, La Fille mal gardйe ("The Girl Poorly Managed"), The Fairy Doll, or Giselle, of which she was an outstanding interpreter. The most famous numbers, however, were the succession of ephemeral solos, which were endowed by her with an inimitable enchantment: The Dragonfly, Californian Poppy, Gavotte, and Christmas are names that lingered in the thoughts of her audiences, together with her single choreographic endeavour, Autumn Leaves (1918).

Pavlova's enthusiasm for ethnic dances was reflected in her programs. Polish, Russian, and Mexican dances were performed. Her visits to India and Japan led her to a serious study of their dance techniques. She compiled these studies into Oriental Impressions, collaborating on the Indian scenes with Uday Shankar, later to become one of the greatest performers of Indian dance, and in this way playing an important part in the renaissance of the dance in India. (see also Index: folk dance)

Because she was the company's raison d'etre, the source of its public appeal, and, therefore, its financial stability, Pavlova's burden was extreme. It was hardly surprising, therefore, that, by the end of her life, her technique was faltering, and she was relying increasingly on her unique qualities of personality.

Pavlova's personal life was undramatic apart from occasional professional headlines, as when, in 1911, she quarreled with Mordkin. For some time she kept secret her marriage to her manager, Victor Dandre, and there were no children; her maternal instincts spent themselves on her company and on a home for Russian refugee orphans, which she founded in Paris in 1920. She loved birds and animals, and her home in London, Ivy House, Hampstead, became famous for the ornamental lake with swans, beside which she was photographed and filmed, recalling her most famous solo, The Dying Swan, which the choreographer Michel Fokine had created for her in 1905. These film sequences are among the few extant of her and are included in a compilation called The Immortal Swan, together with some extracts from her solos filmed one afternoon in Hollywood, in 1924, by the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. Works discussing Pavlova's life and career include Victor Dandrй, Anna Pavlova (1932, reprinted as Anna Pavlova in Art & Life, 1979), a tribute from her husband written immediately after her death; Theodore Stier, With Pavlova Round the World (1927); and Walford Hyden, Pavlova (1931), two accounts of touring with Pavlova written by her musical directors; Harcourt Algeranoff, My Years with Pavlova (1957), one of Pavlova's leading dancers writing of his time with her company; A.H. Franks (ed.), Pavlova (1956, reprinted 1981), a symposium contributed by people who knew Pavlova, compiled for the 25th anniversary of her death; Oleg Kerensky, Anna Pavlova (1973); Andrй Olivйroff, Flight of the Swan (1932, reprinted 1979); John Lazzarini and Roberta Lazzarini, Pavlova: Repertoire of a Legend (1980), a photographic catalog of her career; and Keith Money, Anna Pavlova, Her Life and Art (1982), a comprehensive treatment.

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Success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by a dint of hard work.

~Anna Pavlova (1881 - 1931)

Hello again!

I saw my post and I felt I needed to apologise, because I've made some really foolish mistakes.

And here is another link I found on Britannica.com. It might be interesting to read this one as it is very detailed and gives quite some new information on this phenomenal dancer (at least in my opinion). Here is the link:

http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/...1+58812,00.html

Enjoy your day,

Nadezdha

Hello everybody!

I'm back online. My parents were redecoratineg our apartment and I had very limited access to a computer with internet and vey little time also.

Anyway, I here again and would like to contionue the thread I started last year (1999, I believe) and is, I don't know why, not available in the Anything goes forum.

I have promised you to give you some links to the sites, that I think describe Pavlova well. Ane here they are:

* http://www.nytimes.com/specials/magazine4/...es/pavlova.html - this iste is an old article form New York Times and presents Pavlova as a feminist (at least I think so).

* http://www.nytimes.com/specials/magazine4/...s/pavlova1.html - Here is an article, that discusses Pavlova's death and some of her achievments.

* http://www.bemorecreative.com/one/1291.htm - here are some <I>creative</I> quotations by Pavlova. Interesting to read and think about them.

* http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~jafowler/pavlova.html - and for the fans oh Pavlova, that don't have any of her pictures, here is a site, that provides egiht pictures of this amazing dancer.

* http://www.ardani.com/Pavlova.html - a summary of Pavlova's succeses.

* http://www.tte.nl/bn/pavlova.htm - and here another (officical?) site of Pavlova School of Dance.

* http://www.tte.nl/bn/pavbio.htm - and on this site you can fin a lot of information on Pavlova plus a large selection of bibliography.

* http://www.eonline.com/Facts/Movies/0%2C60...67962%2C00.html - and hte last link today is a commerical link, that presents a film on Pavlova (my absolute favorite) with the title: Pavlova - A Woman for All Time.

This is mostly everything I'd like to say today. I hope you'll tell me, what your feelings about Pavlova are when you see this sites. I hope you have fun!

Have a nice day.

Sincerely, Nadezhda

I've discovered two OK sites about Anna Pavlova and if you'd like to see their adresses just let me know. (You can do it by e-mail too: nkogoj@yahoo.com ).

So, I just wanted to drop this note, because i started the topic in search of Anna Pavlova's sites.

In the begfinning of the new Year I wish you all the very best and just go for it with the positive attitude and you'll make it!

Luv, Nadezhda.

Hello!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Really, thanks for everything you posted!First of all: I know, there is a desert called Anna Pavlova and I have seen it (Manhattnik, thanks for puting that photo in, I really got hungry .) Then, I have searched Yahoo! (because I have my e-mail there so, naturally my first thought was to seach there, but the results were a little too big thing for me, because there were 729 matches and I thought I'll just stop by here if anyone knows for any good site.

Now, for the books, I really doubt, they are avaliable in Slovenia (where I live), but I hope you can explain me, how to shop online (at Amazon or Barnes&Nobles), if I don't have opened an account. But I'll try to reach those books anyway.

As for the films: I have seen one, which totally put me under spell. I unfortunately don't know, who is starring in it, as I missed the beginning, but i REALLY loved the way Anna Pavlova was presented and the way, that ballerina who was Anna danced with that in her movement, that natural ability to be whatever to dance like whichever thing on Earth! Her technique: I don't know anything about it; my interest in Anna began after seeing that film and re-playing it many times I realised, how she felt that Dying Swan and not even Maya Plisetskaya could do a better swan than she did. So, even if here technique was bad, she made that impresion on a man, which is cruical in the theatre : that she IS the person she was dancing. REally-if she made only a single pirouette and one felt like she did four of them - then she reached what she wanted to make a man believe, that this is not real, this is an illusion and everything in ballet and thatre has to do with illusion. So I guess, that Petipa, though he is mentioned as a cruel man, who wanted every dancer to be techincally polished considered her as enough good to dance in Swan Lake and ballets like that, she must of been at least good in pretending.

This is quite a long thing I wrote, I hope it is clear, because I believe, that there are quite some gramatical and other mistakes, but anyway, please reply if you belive, that you know anything further on this theme.

With much love, Nadezhda

Hi!

I posted this here, because it seems to me, that most people stop at this forum.

Now, my question is, do you know of any good web-sites, that include Anna Pavlova's biograpy and stuff like that? If you know any books, that refer to this theme I'll be glad to see them here.

So, if you do, please post them.

Nadezhda

P.S. If I don't stop by please all, accept my greeting: I wish you all best in the fast coming new Millenium and happy and merry Christmas.