Pavlova's View On Musicality In Dancing

 

Photo Credit: Anna Pavlova in the 'Fire Bird" costume (Blue Bird pas de deux) from Anna Pavlova Her Life And Art by Keith Money

Anna Pavlova was in the headlines again, but this time on her personal view on musicality in dancing which shocked many because she believed a dancer constantly thought about time and when to come in on the right beat. In her words, this impacts the dancer's dancing. However, she saw having rhythmic instinct as different. Feeling the rhythm by instinct with your entire body, soul, and very being of a dancer was vital to dancing. Without rhythm, the dancing wouldn't work because there would be no self-expression felt in the dancing by the dancer, and the audience wouldn't feel that emotional connection with the dancer and what they were trying to convey in the dance.

Anna Pavlova describes this very topic in an interview that created headlines at the time.

"Time is a simple matter. It consists merely in keeping track of the beat, which in most music is fairly obvious. But a sense of rhythm, that is something different. Without a highly developed sense of rhythm no one can dance really well. A too accurate sense of time, on the other hand, often interferes with good dancing... Technique is a necessity of course, but an artist must always guard against becoming too dependent on it. Even within the limits of technique, it is possible to make every performance of a dance, to a certain degree, spontaneous and self expressive."- Quote from Anna Pavlova

This quote from her clearly shows how strong she felt about artistry. Artistry was essential to her. I think she did this interview on this topic of musicality, so her feelings about it would be heard and felt by other dancers.  I believe hearing her say not to let perfection, technique, and musicality dominate a dancer's will to express themselves really resonated with many dancers and maybe took some weight off their shoulders of trying to be perfect at everything and instead find that natural instinct in dance that gets you to move with the music.

Pavlova's view, the dancer needed to connect with the music rhythm and the dancer's emotions. This emotion is what the dancer was trying to express through their dancing and cause the audience to feel that same connection the dancer was feeling and expressing.  To her, the dance having perfect technique and musicality ranked second to artistry. Without feeling artistry and self expression the dance wasn't alive to her or had emotion nor a soul.