The influences of Sir Frederick Ashton

Anna Pavlova

Anna Pavlova was the illegitimate daughter of a laundry-woman. Her father was probably a young Jewish soldier and businessman. When she saw The Sleeping Beauty performed, Anna Pavlova decided to become a dancer, and entered the Imperial Ballet School at ten. She worked very hard there, and on graduation began to perform at the Maryinsky Theatre, debuting on September 19, 1899.

In 1907, Anna Pavlova began her first tour, to Moscow, and by 1910 was appearing at the Metropolitan Opera House in America. When, in 1914, she was traveling through Germany on her way to England when Germany declared war on Russia, her connection to Russia was for all intents broken.

For the rest of her life, Anna Pavlova toured the world with her own company and kept a home in London, where her exotic pets were constant company when she was there. Victor Dandré, her manager, was also her companion, and may have been her husband (she deliberately clouded this issue).

While her contemporary, Isadora Duncan, introduced revolutionary innovations to dance, Anna Pavlova remained largely committed to the classic style. She was known for her daintiness, frailness, lightness and both wittiness and pathos.

Her last world tour was in 1928-29 and her last performance in England in 1930. Anna Pavlova appeared in a few silent films: one, The Immortal Swan, she shot in 1924 but it was not shown until after her death -- it originally toured theaters in 1935-1936 in special showings, then was released more generally in 1956.
Anna Pavlova died of pleurisy in the Netherlands in 1931.
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/dance/p/anna_pavlova.htm

The world will forever remember the Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, who brought a more traditional feel to classical ballet.

On her ninth birthday, Anna's mother treated her to a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, a ballet that forever changed Anna's life. She decided then that she would one day dance on stage. She began taking ballet lessons and was quickly accepted into the Imperial Ballet School.
 

Anna was not a typical ballerina of her day. At only five-feet-tall, she was delicate and slender, unlike most of the students in her classes. She was exceptionally strong and had perfect balance. Anna possessed many unique talents. She soon became a prima ballerina.

Anna formed her own ballet company and went on tour, introducing her classical style of ballet to the world. She visited several countries, traveling over 500,000 miles by boat and train. She gave over 4,000 performances.

Anna was known to have had very arched feet, which made it hard to dance on the tips of her toes. She discovered that by adding a piece of hard leather to the soles, the shoes provided better support. Many people thought of this as cheating, as a ballerina should be able to hold her own weight on her toes. However, her idea was the precursor to the modern pointe shoe.

Anna Pavlova believed that dancing was her gift to the world. She felt that God had given her the gift of dance to delight others. She often said that she was "haunted by the need to dance." She became an inspiration to young boys and girls to learn how to dance and experience the joys of ballet.
http://dance.about.com/od/famousdancers/p/Anna_Pavlova.htm