Anna Pavlova - a great ballerina, a symbol of the era, creative person, without which Russian ballet would never have gained numerous fans around the world. This fragile woman sacrificed everything in the name of love for art, and her occupation charitable activities saved many human lives.

In her honor, the Dutch developed a beautiful variety of dazzling white tulips, and the Australians created a delicious dessert called “Anna Pavlova”; Pavlova became a muse famous sculptor, an inspiration for many generations of dancers. She knew how to absorb the culture of other countries and embody it through her dance, without deviating from the canons of classical ballet. Ballerinas with such a wide range are a real treasure of the world dance art.

The childhood of the great prima

Despite her fame, Anna Pavlova did not like to talk about herself, believing that her personal life should remain a secret to others. The ballerina tried not to give interviews, she lived quite closed, considering only ballet the meaning of her life. Most famous book her unofficial husband Victor Dandre will write about her - “Anna Pavlova. Biography”, where she will reveal the nobility of soul and self-sacrifice of the great prima of Russian ballet.

The exact date of birth of Anna Pavlova is unknown - according to the church book of records, it was February 12, 1881, and birth records contain the date January 31 of the same year. There is also no certainty about the ballerina’s patronymic: according to some sources, she was Lazarevna, according to others, Matveevna. Anna Pavlova's mother was Lyubov Fedorovna Pavlova, an incredibly beautiful, intelligent woman who served as a laundress for the wealthy banker Lazar Polyakov.

Little Anya became the fruit of an illicit passion, but in order to avoid shame, the banker could not officially recognize her, and therefore allowed her to give her only her middle name. Therefore, according to documents, the ballerina’s father was Lyubov Fedorovna’s husband, a simple soldier, Matvey Pavlovich.

Anya was born a weak, premature girl, she was often sick, and therefore was incredibly pale and thin. In her memoirs about childhood, Anna Pavlova says that she and her mother lived extremely poorly, but she always found a way to please her beloved daughter. One day, when the ballerina was eight years old, she and her mother went to the Mariinsky Theater for the wonderful performance “The Sleeping Beauty.” The action taking place on stage so charmed Pavlova that she decided to become a dancer and connect her life with ballet forever.

When mother brought young Anna to ballet school, the director decisively stated that he would accept the girl only when she turns ten years old. According to the ballerina’s recollections, this waiting time became a real test for her: the dream of being on stage and dancing like a magical fairy did not leave her for a minute.

Soon Anna Pavlova was enrolled in the Imperial Ballet School, where she spent nine years, tirelessly practicing at the limit of her strength for nine hours a day. The difficult regime, more like a monastery, not only did not break the will of the great ballerina, but helped her finally decide on her future profession.

The ballerina’s poor health did not make itself felt in the best possible way, however, Anna’s fighting nature did not allow her to give up and give up dancing. In 1898 took place graduation concert, in which the ballerina inspiredly danced the part of the butler’s daughter in the ballet “Imaginary Dryads”.

The examiners were fascinated by the unusualness, precision of her movements, and the ability to express her individuality within the framework of the classical approach. Having mastered classical technique ballet dance After graduating from college, Pavlova received a diploma with the title of best dancer, and then was enrolled as a full-time ballerina at the Mariinsky Theater.

Prima's creative path

Debut on big stage took place in the ballet “Vain Precaution,” where Pavlova danced with two other ballerinas. Anna Pavlova was wonderfully built: her long arms and legs, high rise, and incredible fragility of the ballerina enchanted and delighted fans, and her masterful steps on stage made even the most demanding ballet connoisseurs freeze.

Ballet became the meaning of her life, but in order to dance the first parts, she needed to master the “steel toe” technique. Studying privately with famous choreographers E. Cecchetti and C. Beretta, Pavlova significantly improves her skills, which allows her to beat the famous Italian ballerinas and get the first roles in Petipa's performances.

Anna Pavlova, who had no patronage, had to achieve everything herself, making her way to the stage with her own perseverance and skill. And so, in 1900, she was entrusted with the role of Flora in Flora’s Awakening, where the famous choreographer Fokine became her partner. The ballet was a resounding success, and offers to perform leading female roles followed one after another:

• Pavlova danced the role of Nikia (“La Bayadère”) in such a way that the heroine’s fate acquired a special tragedy and meaning.
• Anna's Giselle was so good that the audience gave her a standing ovation.
• Paquita, performed by Pavlova, made this ballet a world heritage.
• Kitri became one of the most successful dance roles for a ballerina, thanks to this role Pavlova was named the first ballerina Mariinsky Theater.

In 1908, the ballerina began touring, recalling which she noted that the public received their troupe extremely favorably, showering them with applause and flowers. Anna Pavlova performed the main role in the ballet Swan Lake, creating an unprecedented sensation, and then in Paris the ballerina joined Diaghilev’s troupe and danced the ballet La Sylphide.

However, Pavlova did not stay long in “Russian Seasons”; the soul of the ballerina demanded creative freedom, and around 1910 the prima founded her own troupe. A new stage began in the ballerina’s life and collaboration with Fokin, who staged the play “Daughters of the Mountain King” for her.

The psychological fullness and completeness of the roles performed by Pavlova gave the performances new life, as happened, for example, with the dance of the dying swan. On tour, the great ballerina Anna Pavlova traveled all over the world, even visiting many cities in America, where the public received her with admiration and showered her with expensive gifts.

Financial disagreements with the management of the Mariinsky Theater led to the termination of the contract with the ballerina, but in 1914, after much persuasion, Pavlova returned to Russia and delighted the public with her performances. After leaving abroad, Pavlova would never return home, but after the revolution, the prima did not remain indifferent to the troubles of her homeland: she sent charitable parcels, donated significant sums to help those in need, and financially helped the ballet school in St. Petersburg.

Prima's last years

Anna Pavlova's personal life was eventful, but men were never the meaning of her life. Four of her novels are known for certain, but Pavlova was never officially married and had no children.

Pavlova’s chosen one was a certain Victor Dandre, a mining engineer who occupied a position in society much higher than hers, and therefore did not think about marrying a simple bourgeois woman. When the authorities accused him of embezzling a huge sum and put him under arrest, Pavlova, having learned about this, sent the fee for the performance to save her lover.

Dandre secretly went abroad without a passport and lived for a long time on the estate of Anna Pavlova in England. Later he became the ballerina's impresario and achieved considerable success in this field, organizing performances of her troupe in America and Europe. For Dandre, the personal life of his savior was not a secret; he knew about her affairs with dancers, but resignedly endured numerous infidelities.

In 1931, the great ballerina arrived on tour in the Netherlands, but Pavlova caught a cold on the train, and on the way a trunk fell on her and hit her hard in the ribs. Pavlova did not tell anyone about the injury, however, upon arriving at the hotel, she felt overwhelmed and lost consciousness.

Queen Wilhemina immediately sent her personal doctor to her, and he made a disappointing diagnosis - pleurisy. Another doctor, who arrived from Paris, found her unconscious and tried to save her by draining the lungs, but on January 21, 1931, the ballerina died, just a couple of days short of her fiftieth birthday. Author: Natalya Ivanova

Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was born on February 12, 1881 in St. Petersburg. There is still 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 discovered in the theater archives 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 a time when the girl was already 18 years old.
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.

In her autobiography, written in 1912, Anna Pavlova recalled her childhood and first steps on stage:My first memory is a small house in St. Petersburg, where my mother and I lived alone...We were very, very poor. But my mother always managed to give me some pleasure on major holidays.When I was eight years old, she announced that we would go to the Mariinsky Theater. “Now you will see 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 Sleeping Beauty.”

I love to remember that first evening at the theater, which decided my fate.

“We cannot accept an eight-year-old child,” said the director of the ballet school, where my mother took me, exhausted by my persistence. “Bring her when she’s ten years old.”During the two years of waiting, I became nervous, 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 first dancer. Since then I have risen to the rank of ballerina. In Russia, besides me, only four dancers have the official right to this title. The idea of ​​trying myself on foreign stages first came when I was reading Taglioni’s biography. This great Italian danced everywhere: in Paris, London, and Russia. A cast of her leg is still kept here in St. Petersburg.”

Study 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 school's charter was monastically strict, but the teaching here was excellent. At that time, the St. Petersburg Ballet School was undoubtedly the best in the world. Only here the classical ballet technique was still preserved.

In 1898, Pavlova’s student performed in the ballet “Two Stars,” staged by Petitpas. Even then, connoisseurs noted a special grace inherent only to her, an amazing ability to capture the poetic essence of a part and give it its own coloring.

After graduating from school in 1899, Pavlova was enrolled in the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater. Her debut took place in 1899 in the ballet “The Pharaoh's Daughter” to the music of Cesar Pugni, staged by Saint-Georges and Petipa. Having neither patronage nor a name, she remained on the sidelines for some time. The thin dancer, who was in poor health, showed a strong-willed character: she was used to overcoming herself and, even when ill, did not refuse to perform on stage. In 1900, in The Awakening of Flora, she received the role 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 entirely within the limits classical school, she knew how to be amazingly original and, performing old ordinary dances, turned them into true masterpieces. The St. Petersburg public soon began to recognize the young talented ballerina. Anna Pavlova's skills improved year after year, from performance to performance. The young ballerina attracted attention with her extraordinary musicality and psychological restraint of dance, emotionality and drama, as well as yet undiscovered creative possibilities. The ballerina brought a lot of new things, her own, to each new performance.

Soon Anna Pavlova becomes the second, and then the first soloist. In 1902, Pavlova created a completely new image Nikiya in “La Bayadère”, 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 ending. The fiery, bravura dance of her heroines - Paquita, Kitri - was an example of performing skill and style.

At the beginning of 1903, Pavlova danced on stage for the first time. Bolshoi Theater. The brilliant but difficult path of Anna Pavlova in ballet begins, with her triumphant performances in the cities of the Russian Empire.

The ballerina's individuality, her dancing style, and her 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 elegant, animated engravings from the era of romanticism. In this ballet she danced the Mazurka and the Seventh Waltz with V.F. Nijinsky. Although her partner Vaslav Nijinsky danced the entire academic repertoire of leading soloists, his individuality was revealed primarily in the ballets of M. M. Fokine.

Anna Pavlova's first foreign tour

Since 1908, Anna Pavlova began touring abroad.This is how she 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 greeted as revelations of new art.

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

I went with a Russian ballet troupe to Leipzig, Prague and Vienna, we danced Tchaikovsky’s lovely “Swan Lake”. Then I joined Diaghilev’s troupe, which 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, dancing in the ballets: “Pavilion of Armida”, “La Sylphides” and “Cleopatra” - these were the names of “Chopiniana” and “Egyptian Nights”. Pavlova performed this repertoire in Russia. In the luxurious ensemble of the greatest talents presented by Diaghilev in Paris, Anna occupied one of the first places. But Pavlova did not perform in “Russian Seasons” for long. She wanted creative freedom.

Anna Pavlova's first independent productions

It was natural for Pavlova to try directing 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 long white chiton with flowers in her hands and hair. Her eyes lit up when she handed her bouquet to someone. Flexible hands either passionately called out or fearfully pulled away. Everything together turned into a monologue about insane passion. The pathos was justified by the naive sincerity of the feeling. The free movement of the body and arms gave the impression of improvisation, reminiscent of Duncan's influence. But classical dance, including finger technique, was also present, diversifying and complementing expressive gestures. Pavlova's independent creativity was met with approval. The next numbers were “Dragonfly” by F. Kreisler, “Butterfly” by R. Drigo, “California Poppy”.
Here classical dance coexisted and intertwined with free plasticity. What united them was the heroine’s emotional state.

In 1910, Anna Pavlova left the Mariinsky Theater, creating her own troupe. Pavlova included in her tour repertoire ballets by Tchaikovsky and Glazunov, “Vain Precaution,” “Giselle,” “Coppelia,” “Paquita,” and interesting concert numbers. The ballerina introduced all ballet lovers to Russian art. The troupe consisted of Russian choreographers and predominantly Russian dancers. 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 around the world. She was the first to open Russian ballet to America, where for the first time ballet performances began to be staged at full capacity.
“...From London I went on tour to America, where I danced at the Metropolitan Theater. Of course, I am delighted with the reception the Americans gave me. The newspapers published my portraits, articles about me, interviews with me and - to tell the truth - a bunch of nonsense fiction 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 an extraordinary woman. The power of imagination of American journalists is simply amazing.

From New York we went on a tour around the province. It was a real triumphal procession, but terribly tiring. I was invited to go to America next year, and I wanted to go myself, but I really don’t have enough strength for this race across the continent - it breaks my nerves so terribly.” Her tour routes included both Asia and the Far East. Behind the brilliant performances lay hard work. Here, for example, is a list of performances by Anna Pavlova's troupe in the USA in December 1914: 31 performances in different cities - from Cincinnati to Chicago, and not a single day of rest. The picture was the same in the Netherlands in December 1927: daily performances in different cities - from Rotterdam to Groningen. And only one day of rest - December 31st. Over 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 truly hard work.

There was a period when the Italian master Ninolini made an average of two thousand pairs of ballet shoes per year for Anna Pavlova, which was barely enough.
Besides the 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 management's desire to conclude a new contract with her was met with a demand to return the penalty. However, the theater was interested in the ballerina's performances. Steps were taken to resolve 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 management insisted that Anna perform only in Russia.
In the spring of 1914, Pavlova visited home for the last time. The ballerina performed on May 31 at the St. Petersburg People's House, on June 7 at the Pavlovsky Station, and on June 3 at the Mirror Theater of the Moscow Hermitage Garden. The repertoire included “The Dying Swan”, “Bacchanalia”, and her other miniatures. An enthusiastic reception was addressed to the new Pavlova, an international “star”. The small, fragile ballerina, accustomed to overly strenuous work, was 33 years old. This was the fifteenth season, the middle of her stage life.
She never returned to her homeland. But Pavlova was not indifferent to the situation in Russia. During the difficult post-revolutionary years, she sent parcels to students of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, transferred large sums of money to the starving people of the Volga region, and 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 Fokin. She performed the main roles in many of his ballets: “The Grapevine” by A. Rubinstein, “Chopiniana”, “Egyptian Nights”. As a result creative union Pavlova and Fokina created works where dance is subordinated to spiritual and expressive tasks. This is how “Chopiniana” and “Swan” appeared to the music of C. Saint-Saëns, which became the poetic symbol of Russian choreography.
Especially for Pavlova’s troupe, Mikhail Fokin staged “Preludes” to the music of F. Liszt and “Seven Daughters of the Mountain King” to the music of K. Spendiarov.

The small traveling troupe, of course, could not compete with the Mariinsky Theater either in its performing staff or musical culture, nor the design. The losses were inevitable and very noticeable, especially when turning to the academic repertoire. In such alterations, Pavlova treated the music unceremoniously - she changed tempos, timbre colors, cut out numbers and inserted music from other composers. The only criterion that was important to her was to awaken her creative imagination. And the ballerina, due to her talent, often managed to some extent overcome the obvious absurdities of the musical material.

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

“The Paris season of 1924 was especially rich and brilliant in musical and theatrical relations, - as much as my poor means allowed me, I did not miss a single interesting concert, not a single interesting performance and lived by it, greedily absorbing all the impressions. One of the strongest and most significant Parisian impressions was the performance of Anna Pavlova.
During intermission, in the foyer, I met Diaghilev - wherever I went this spring, I met him everywhere - and when he asked how I liked Anna Pavlova, I could only babble in delighted confusion: “Divine!” Brilliant! Wonderful!". Yes, Sergei Pavlovich did not need to ask my opinion - it was written on my face. But I did not dare to talk to Diaghilev or anyone else about my ambivalent impression, about the fact that some places seemed cheap and fraudulent to me. I was sure that everyone would laugh at me and say that I didn’t understand anything and was blasphemous. Subsequently, I became convinced that I was not the only one blaspheming—Diaghilev, who told me a lot about Anna Pavlova, also blasphemed.”

Personal life of Anna Pavlova

The ballerina’s personal life was not easy, and Anna Pavlova considered it natural:

“Now I want to answer the question that is often asked to me: why don’t I get married. The answer is very simple. A true artist, like a nun, does not have the right to lead the life desired by most women. She cannot burden herself with worries about the family and the household and should not demand a quiet life from life. family happiness which is given to the majority. I see that my life is a single whole. Pursuing the same goal non-stop 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 once thought that success was happiness. I was wrong. Happiness is a butterfly that enchants for a moment and flies away.”
Pavlova connected her life with Victor Dandre. A very contradictory person. Dandre, a mining engineer, was accused in 1910 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 free him. Despite a written undertaking not to leave, Dandre subsequently fled Russia and lived without a passport for many years.
At the same time, Dandre was one of the most capable impresarios of his time, who first understood the power of the press. He constantly organized press conferences, invited photo reporters and newspapermen to Pavlova’s speeches, and gave numerous interviews related to her life and work. For example, he perfectly played out plots inspired by in a romantic way"Swan". Many photographs have been preserved of Anna Pavlova on the shore of the lake, along the mirror surface of which beautiful snow-white birds glide. There was such a reservoir at her Ivy House estate 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, its 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 ballerina’s world fame, 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

January 17, 1931 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, developed a special variety of snow-white tulips and named them “Anna Pavlova”. You can still admire their exquisite beauty at flower exhibitions. The Dutch impresario Ernst Krauss met Anna at the station with a large bouquet of these flowers. But the ballerina felt bad and immediately went to the Hotel des Endes, where she was assigned a “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 falling trunk hit her hard in the ribs. Anna told only her close friends about this incident, although she complained to many people about the pain.
A doctor was urgently called to the hotel and discovered acute pleurisy in the ballerina. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands sent Pavlova her personal physician, de Jong. After examining her, he came to the following conclusion: “Madam, you have pleurisy. Surgery required. I would advise removing one rib to make it easier to suck out the fluid.” In response to this, Dandre exclaimed: “How can this be! After all, she won’t be able to dance tomorrow!” Indeed, posters were posted 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.” Then there was a long tour of the Northern and Latin America, Far East. But this was not destined to come true.
Dandre decided to invite another doctor. Doctor Zalevsky, who had already treated Anna before, was urgently summoned from Paris by telegram. 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. These were supposedly her last words...

However, the reality was much more prosaic and tragic. Anna Pavlova's maid Marguerite Letienne and the doctors who were at her bedside spoke about this. 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 the expensive dress recently bought in Paris from a famous couturier, said to Marguerite: “I would rather spend this money on my children.” She meant orphans who had long lived at her expense in one of the mansions. After this, the patient fell into a coma. When Zalewski arrived, he tried to pump out the fluid from the pleura and lungs using 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 caused by an insufficiently disinfected drainage tube...

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 for her. But Dandre spoke out in favor of Anna being cremated. While touring in India, she became fascinated by Indian funeral ceremonies, during which the body of the deceased is burned on a funeral pyre. She remarked to loved ones that she would like to be cremated. “This way, later it will be easier to return my ashes to dear Russia,” she allegedly said. Dandre discussed this issue with impresario Krauss, and they decided to consult with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in The Hague by priest Rozanov, because according to church canons, only burial in a cemetery is required. Considering the situation, the priest did not object to 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 Anna's death, Dandre declared his claims to Aini House. When the ballerina’s mother, rejecting these attacks, sued him, Dandre was unable to present any marriage certificates or wedding photographs, citing the fact that the documents had not been preserved after the revolution in Russia. The lawyer then recalled that he had previously talked about marrying Pavlova in America. But even here, Dandre was unable to provide documents or even name the place of the wedding. He lost the case and had to leave Ivy House.
Whether Dandre was Anna Pavlova's husband or not, his will, quoted in the book, states: "I instruct my attorneys to purchase niches 5791 and 3797 at Golders 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 the ashes of my wife and, if they consider it possible, also my ashes to Russia, if at any time the Russian government or the government of any large Russian province seeks the transfer and gives my attorneys satisfactory assurances that that Anna Pavlova’s ashes will receive due honor and respect.”

Anna Pavlova is unique. She didn't have high-profile titles, left neither followers nor school. After her death, her troupe was disbanded and her property was sold off. All that remains is the legend of the great Russian ballerina Pavlova, after whom prizes and international awards are named. Feature films and documentaries are dedicated to her (Anna Pavlova, 1983 and 1985). The French choreographer R. Petit staged the ballet “My Pavlova” to composite music. Numbers from her repertoire are danced by the world's leading ballerinas.

http://www.biografii.ru/index.php name=Meeting&file=anketa&login=pavlova_a_p

Portrait of Anna Pavlova in the ballet La Sylphide

Artist Sorin Savely Abramovich (1887-1953)

Russian ballet dancer

Little is known about the real life of Anna Pavlova. She wrote it herself wonderful book, but this book was more about the reverent and vibrant secrets of her art, in which there was a lot of improvisation, than about her biography itself. Her husband and impresario Victor Dandre also wrote a beautiful and expressive book about her, where the reflection of a living feeling and the pain of a heart fluttered, stunned by the sudden loss of a dear and beloved being. But this book is just a small touch to that mysterious thing that sparkled and shimmered in Anna Pavlova, that was her very essence, her breath - the Inspiration that lived in all her creative nature!

Probably, the secret of Pavlova’s difference from other dancers who shone on 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, flying across the stage. In her speech there was something childish, pure, not in keeping with real life. She chirped like a bird, flushed like a child, cried and laughed easily, instantly moving from one to the other. She has always been like this: both at 15 and at 45.

Newspapers dedicated lavish reviews to her: “Pavlova is a cloud hovering above the earth, Pavlova is a flame flaring up and dying out, this autumn leaf, driven by a gust of icy wind...".

“Flexible, graceful, musical, with facial expressions full of life and fire, she surpasses everyone with her amazing airiness. How quickly and magnificently this bright, versatile talent blossomed,” 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 simply lived in it, there is no other way to say it. She was the very Soul of Dance. But it’s unlikely that the Soul can be expressed 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 the idea for Anna concert number to the music of Saint-Saëns in just a few minutes, improvising along with it. At first, the Swan, in a weightless tutu trimmed with down, 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 her snow-white tutu - a ruby ​​brooch.

When Saint-Saëns saw Pavlova dancing his Swan, he secured a meeting with her to say: “Madame, thanks to you I realized that I wrote beautiful music!”

The 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, large or small, and followed the performer. A figure dressed in swan's down appeared on pointe shoes with its back to the audience.

She rushed about in intricate zigzags of her death agony and did not get off her pointe shoes until the end of the performance.

Her strength weakened, she withdrew 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 those seeing the ballet for the first time simple people– this number performed by her always shocked the audience. M. Fokin wrote that “The Swan” performed by Pavlova was proof that dance can and should not only please the eye, it should 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 or copied. The secret of her success was not in the execution of the steps, but in the emotional fullness and spirituality of the dance. “The secret of my popularity is the sincerity of my art,” Pavlova repeated more than once. And she was right.

Anna Pavlova idolized art, loved it with such a passion with which only women of the “Silver Age” were probably capable of treating it. 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 the figure of 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 an adherent exclusively of the St. Petersburg school of classical ballet and therefore rejected the new quests of 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 costume with wings in art style nouveau.

“Assyrian dance”, reminiscent of animated bas-reliefs of Ancient Babylon, clearly belonged to the search for a new genre.

She even visited the school of Mary Wigman in Dresden, a champion of the new dance movement. Meanwhile, Pavlova loved to repeat that the beauty of dance meant everything to her, and ugliness - nothing (and she categorically rejected everything that seemed ugly to her, and, in particular, some plastic elements new choreography). In her opinion, 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, and visited her studio more than once, but she herself continued to tirelessly promote the unfading art of Russian classical ballet wherever she could and where living conditions even slightly allowed it! Anna Pavlova not only brought her beloved art to people, she paved new paths along which classical ballet came to life different nations. For her tours, Pavlova chose countries such as India, Egypt, China, was in Japan, Burma, Malaya, Cuba, the Philippines, and performed in front of audiences who had never seen ballet before. The dancer set herself the goal of proving that classical ballet is not an art that is accessible only to a few experts.

Pavlova performed selflessly in schools of small American towns in a distant province, in front of Mexican shepherds and 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 reserved Swedes silently escorted her carriage all the way to the hotel, after a performance at the Royal Opera House, the Dutch loved her so much that they bred a special variety of tulips and called it “Anna” Pavlova."

A. Pavlova in New Zealand

For all her devotion to the art of ballet, Anna Pavlova, of course, remained a person of her era. Like any beautiful woman, she loved the world of fashion, willingly being photographed and even posing 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 house of Drekol.

In England, she advertised shoes from the shoe company H. & M. Rayne, which she wore, according to her, both on stage and in life. The style of clothing “a la Pavlova” became so popular that it presented the fashion world with the Pavlova atlas, released in 1921. It was Pavlova who introduced the fashion for embroidered Manila shawls draped in the Spanish style 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 describes the prima's fastidiousness in choosing each new thing.

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

Anna Pavlova was a patron of Russian fashion houses in Paris: one of her personal couturiers was Pierre Pitoev. It is significant that the program for the performances of Pavlova’s troupe at the Parisian “Théâtre des Champs-Élysées” in May 1928 was decorated with advertisements for Prince Felix Yusupov’s fashion house, “IRFE”.

Programs for Anna Pavlova's speeches:

1915

Pavlova's art is inseparable from the work of remarkable theater artists of her time. In 1913, based on Boris Anisfeld’s sketches, fabulously beautiful costumes and scenery were made for Fokine’s ballet “Preludes” to Liszt’s music. Konstantin Korovin created the 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 American tour in 1925. The costumes for “Minuet”, “The Dying Swan” and “A Musical Moment” were made according to sketches by Leon Bakst, and Pavlova’s Russian costume was designed by the talented Sergei Solomko, the favorite artist of Emperor Nicholas II. Mstislav Dobuzhinsky was the author of the sets and costumes for her “Fairy Dolls”. Subsequently, however, they were replaced by the design of Sergei Sudeikin. Contemporaries noted the scenic similarity of “The Puppet Fairy” from Pavlova’s repertoire with Diaghilev’s “La Boutique Fantasque” (“The Fancy Shop”), an ancient Viennese ballet that was performed on the stages of many European theaters at the beginning of the twentieth century. The performance “Invitation to Dance” was designed by Nikolai Benois (son of Alexander Benois). In 1917, Anna Pavlova’s repertoire included the “Egyptian Ballet” staged by Ivan Khlustin to the music of Verdi and Luigini. The design for it was created by Ivan Bilibin. Bilibin also designed for Pavlova’s troupe a production of “The Russian Fairy Tale” based on the plot of “The Golden Cockerel”, choreographed by Lavrenty Novikov.

Somov K. Sketch of Columbine’s costume 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 Fairy of Dolls based on the sketches of Lev Bakst. With Anna Pavlova a new ideal of beauty came to the ballet stage: the plump Venuses of Petipa's era were replaced by the ethereal Sylphs

Anna Pavlova's activities go 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 peoples different countries. In the person of Anna Pavlova, the Russian ballet school received world fame and recognition.

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

Her English mansion, Ivy House, “a house covered with ivy,” greeted guests with a pond with swans, among which was her favorite, the snow-white and proud handsome Jack (he, like a dog, followed his hostess around the garden, not afraid to take a treat from their hands).

The ballerina loved to take pictures with swans. There is a well-known photograph of her, where the photographer played up the actual similarity - the curve of a swan's neck and the flexibility of a female ballet figure.

Pavlova, unlike others 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 students, both professional and human. Her art, as the best emigration ballet critic Andrei Levinson accurately noted, “was born and died with her - to dance like Pavlova, you had to be Pavlova.”

Her life in dance could be called a feat. That's what they called 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 about her: the style of clothing, hats, shoes, behavior, breakdowns, whims, gait, manner of speaking and laughing and touchingly protected her, as if her beloved star child... A child . She was just that, 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 graceful running across the stage, in the slow graceful steps of her unique “Swan”, in the romantic whirling of the transparent Sylphide, in slow dance gracefully crazy Giselle. Even leaving forever, on the gloomy morning of January 23, 1931, in the heat and delirium of an unexpected and seemingly trivial influenza, sharply complicated by fleeting pneumonia, Anna was preparing for her next appearance on stage... According to legend, her last quiet words in delirious were addressed to the costume designer of the troupe gathered at the bedside: “Prepare my Swan costume!”

...Ballet, unlike literature, painting, music, is a fragile, momentary art, existing only “here and now.” Anna Pavlova's art was fascinating and captivating. And time turned out to have no power over him. It would seem that classical dance - pirouettes, batmans, plies, pas de bure - is all well known, but the brilliant Pavlova could express a living feeling, a whimsical change of mood, a play of fantasy with the help of ballet steps. And no matter how much one reflects on the secrets of her performance, the riddles and mysteries of her art, they remain unsolved.

A documentary film “Without the Right to Take” was shot about Anna Pavlova.

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Used materials:

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

“An artist must know everything about love and learn to live without it.”
Anna Pavlova

She was called "Divine" and "Delightful". They said she was " White Swan" and even "Fairy of the Swan Flock." One girl wrote to her parents: “Remember, you told me: whoever sees a 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 to write stories about her. She read myths about herself in newspapers - and laughed. Legends surround her name to this day.

She never talked about her personal life, in which there was only one 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 whom there were many rumors and legends, wished to keep everything that did not concern her work secret. Nothing was known about her personal life. And only after her death did the world learn about the beautiful and tragic story 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 Fedorovna, working as a laundress, tried to brighten up the difficult childhood of her “beloved Nyura.” On name days and Christmas, gifts were always waiting for the girl, brought by a caring, generous hand, and when Anna turned eight, her mother took her to the Mariinsky Theater to see the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty.”

So the future dancer fell in love with this art forever, and two years later the thin and sickly girl was accepted into the ballet department of the St. Petersburg State University. theater school. Eight years later, Pavlova became the leading actress of the Mariinsky Theater, and after the stunning success in the role of Nikia in La Bayadère, she was already called the first soloist of the Mariinsky Theater.

Newspapers wrote with delight about the aspiring ballerina: “Flexible, musical, with facial expressions 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 her gifts, but Anna rejected everyone, and sent generous gifts back to confused suitors. She was proud, sensual and unpredictable. “I am a nun of art. Personal life? This is theater, theater, theater,” Pavlova never 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 the young ballerina. Relatives knew that everything free time she spends time with the rich, handsome Victor Dandre (1870-1944). The new acquaintance came from an aristocratic family belonging to an ancient noble family. He held a high post of adviser in the Senate, was well educated, owned several foreign languages and was seriously interested in art. Patronizing an aspiring ballerina, as members of the imperial family had done before him, 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 about marrying her. He rented an apartment for Pavlova and equipped one of the rooms as a dance hall, which was an unaffordable luxury for a young ballerina at that time. Each time, meeting a girl after a 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 further Pavlova got to know her new acquaintance, the more clearly she understood that Dandre did not need her at all, and an unequal marriage with a modest girl was impossible for him. And she left him, preferring loneliness to the humiliating position of a kept woman. “At first I struggled,” Pavlova recalled, “out of grief I just started to go on a spree, 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 life, which changed a lot in the life of the famous dancer. The great choreographer Fokine staged “The Dying Swan” for her to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns, which forever became the ballerina’s signature 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, presented her with the Order of Merit for the Arts at parting. The enthusiastic crowd greeted the ballerina with applause. “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 think about Victor.

Meanwhile, things were not going well for Dandre. Having made an unsuccessful deal, the entrepreneur owed a huge amount, which he was unable to repay on time. He went to prison without finding the large sum of money needed to post bail and be released during the lengthy trial. Relatives were unable to raise funds, and rich friends turned their backs on their unlucky partner. For Dandre, a difficult period of painful waiting behind bars began in loneliness and doubt.

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

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

She immediately sent the collected money to Russia to free Victor from prison. A few days later, in 1911, he left St. Petersburg and headed 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 church, in secret. He’s mine, only mine, and I adore him.”

With Victor Dandre

Their marriage remained a secret long years. Victor kept his promise to Anna on his wedding day. He swore to remain silent about their union. The former patron responded to the generosity with a strong feeling that flared up in his heart so as not to fade away until his 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 owner of a small theater. That same year she bought luxury mansion near London, on the shore cleanest lake, where white swans swam and exotic plants brought by the ballerina from different parts of the world grew around. It seemed that the fate of the spouses did not depend on anyone else.

Pavlova in her mansion in London

Victor took upon himself all the household chores, the responsibilities of an accountant and manager. He answered correspondence, conducted business and personal negotiations, organized tours, looked after costumes and scenery, hired and fired actors. However, Pavlova increasingly expressed displeasure. She reproached her husband, made trouble, screamed, broke dishes and cried.

After much hysterics and tears, the ballerina’s spouses reconciled, and it seemed that their family idyll was again not in danger. Once 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 grievances. 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 the long-standing insult inflicted on him in his youth. Whether she forgave him is unlikely to ever be known. But there was no doubt about the sincerity of Victor’s feelings. When his wife died on January 23, 1931 from pneumonia, just a few days short of her fiftieth birthday, Victor, broken by grief, could not return to normal life for a long time.

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

Name: Anna Pavlova

Age: 49 years old

Place of Birth: Ligovo village, Russia

A place of death: The Hague, Netherlands

Activity: great Russian ballerina

Family status: was married

Anna Pavlova ballerina - biography

February 1906, Mariinsky Theater. A huge basket of flowers from an unknown admirer was brought onto the stage and placed at the feet of the bowing prima... Thus began the dizzying romance of the ballerina Anna Pavlova and Baron Dandre, which gave rise to a lot of rumors and gossip.

Anna tried to find among the chrysanthemums a card with at least the initials of her admirer, but in vain. From that day on, the young woman began to receive similar nameless gifts after each performance. This was intriguing and gave me hope that the mysterious stranger had serious intentions.

The personal life of the star of the imperial stage did not work out precisely because she was surrounded by men looking for easy relationships. She regularly sent notes from annoying suitors inviting her on a date to the trash can, and then her heart began to flutter. And from everything it turned out that the donor was a noble and wealthy person. For the illegitimate daughter of a maid, this also mattered.

Anna Pavlova: “I will only be a ballerina!”

The greatest Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova was born on February 12, 1881 in St. Petersburg. Her mother, Lyubov Fedorovna Pavlova, served in the house of banker Lazar Polyakov. According to one version, he became Anya’s father. However, there is another assumption. Lyuba Pavlova carried the banker’s underwear to the laundry owned by the handsome Karaite Matvey Shamash.

It was he who seduced the girl. It was so easy to explain Anna’s sophisticated appearance and her craving for oriental melodies and dances with Karaite blood, supposedly flowing in the ballerina’s veins. However, when the girl grew up and told her mother that she dreamed of dancing on stage, with a request to pay for her daughter’s studies at the ballet school, Lyubov Fedorovna went not to Shamash, but to Polyakov. And he didn’t refuse.

By the way, Anna announced that she would only be a ballerina and no one else in her early childhood, after watching the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty” at the Mariinsky Theater. And Anna Pavlova appeared on the stage of this theater for the first time in her dance biography as a ballerina in 1899 as a student.

After graduating from ballet school, she danced small parts until Giselle was entrusted to her in 1903. Then the young ballerina amazed everyone with the depth of her interpretation of the image and the beauty of her performance. Then the main female roles awaited her in “The Naiad and the Fisherman”, “The Corsair”, “Don Quixote”... But only in 1906 Pavlova was awarded the title of ballerina of the Imperial Stage, awarded only to leading dancers. Fate would have it that main novel in the biography, her personal life began precisely in this year.

The veil of secrecy is lifted...

The more than strange courtship lasted almost four years. In 1910 Russian star returned to St. Petersburg from London, where she was on tour. The capital's public, yearning for their favorite, filled the hall of the Mariinsky Theater to capacity. They performed “The Sleeping Beauty”, Pavlova danced Aurora. After the final chords and the first applause, place such a large basket at Anna’s feet Red roses that the audience fell silent.

This time, a passionate fan left a business card on which was written in gold letters: “Victor Dandre.” A note was attached to the business card - with the same banal invitation to a date! - and a case containing a luxurious pearl clasp with diamonds. For the first time, the note was not crumpled and thrown away by Anna...

The disgraced lover of a ballerina

Baron Victor Dandre, State Councilor, Chairman of the Audit Commission of the St. Petersburg City Duma, a descendant of an ancient French family that settled in Russia, was 35 years old at this time. He was handsome, rich and talented. True, his talent had nothing to do with art. The Baron was a businessman. Nose with a tender heart. Pavlova and Dandre’s romance was discussed no less than at one time the connection between Tsarevich Nika, the future Emperor Nicholas II. It was even rumored that the lovers got married.

In fact, the aristocrat Dandre had no intention of getting married. He did not skimp on gifts, rented luxurious apartments for Pavlova, but that was all he intended to do. When Anna realized this, she moved out of her rented apartment and broke off relations with Victor. She suffered and cried into her pillow at night. To quickly forget Dandre, she went abroad again. She was invited by Sergei Diaghilev, who decided that a better partner could not be found for the premiere of his troupe, the brilliant Vaslav Nijinsky. Pavlova and Nijinsky, indeed, became the stars of the legendary “Russian Seasons” in Paris.

And soon it broke out in St. Petersburg loud scandal, in the center of which was Victor. He was accused of major scams and accepting bribes. Evil tongues also dragged Pavlova into it: they say that she went abroad in order not to be responsible for her affairs or secret husband, or a lover. Dandre was put on trial, after which he paid a fine of 30 thousand rubles (huge money at that time) and gave a written undertaking not to leave. But a few weeks later, with someone else’s documents in his pocket, he entered the lobby of the London hotel where Pavlova was staying...

Family project Pavlova and Dandre

Paris did not cure Anna of love. The ballerina realized that the frivolous baron was the only man with whom she could be happy. Therefore, having learned about his troubles, I decided to act.

By the time Victor appeared in London, Anna had already left Diaghilev and, having signed a contract with the Braffle agency, performed in the British capital. There is information that she accepted the difficult conditions of the British - to give several concerts a week, to dance at any venue for the sake of fantastic fees. She needed the money in order to pay for the services of Dandre’s lawyer, pay a fine for him, and then help him secretly leave Russia.

The baron's return to his homeland was blocked; he had no capital left. This is where his talent as an entrepreneur came in handy. When the contract with Braff expired, Dandre became the impresario of the ballet troupe!, which was organized by his wife.

For the sake of her beloved, Anna gave up the idea of ​​returning to St. Petersburg. Last time she came to Russia briefly in 1914 - of course, alone, without the disgraced Dandre. But the ballerina always thought about her homeland. I was worried when I learned about the October Revolution. Sent to Soviet Russia monetary donations for the hungry in the Volga region and street children. distressed artists...

The last tour of ballerina Anna Pavlova

With their dancers and musicians, the couple traveled all over the world. Anna Pavlova was applauded in Europe, South and North America, Japan, the Philippines... In India, at the end of the performance, the audience knelt and raised their hands, worshiping the ballerina as a deity.

In short breaks between trips, Pavlova and Dandre returned home - to the Ivy House estate on the outskirts of London, with a large garden and a pond in which Jack the swan, Anna's favorite, swam. A week of rest - and again on the road.

The ballerina died during another trip. In January 1931, she caught a cold and suffered from severe pleurisy, but did not cancel her tour in Holland. Anna Pavlova left this world in The Hague at one in the morning on January 23, just shy of her 50th birthday.

It was a terrible blow for everyone who knew and loved her. At the funeral service, people cried, some lost consciousness. It is difficult to imagine what feelings Victor experienced while taking the white marble urn with his wife’s ashes to London. In this city, beloved by her, the great Russian ballerina found her last refuge.

The husband did everything to prevent the troupe from falling apart. He organized new tours in South Africa. Singapore and Australia, bringing the glory of Anna Pavlova to these remote corners. Victor Dandre bequeathed to bury himself next to his wife, which was done in 1944.