Ballet Archives

Photo Credit: Anna Pavlova in Valse Caprice costume, London, c. 1911 from Anna Pavlova Her Life And Art by Keith Money  Anna Pavlova was with the reporter for the Daily Mail for an interview. They accompanied her on her shopping trip, which was soon interrupted by spectators realizing who she was. Anna Pavlova had the reporter make a run for it with her up the stairs to a restaurant to have tea. The reporter remarks how he was out of breath, but Anna Pavlova wasn't even out of breath and made it look easy. "Sometimes we cannot wait for the lift," She said. "These tables are taken so quickly. Let us sit behind a big tree with our backs to everyone." Quote from Anna Pavlova with Daily Mail 1911 This quote demonstrated how spontaneous and free-spirited Anna Pavlova was and how she was ready for anything life would throw at her. The reporter notes that Anna Pavlova's wish was to conquer London with her dancing, and since that came true, her new mission was to to

Photo Credit: Anna Pavlova studio portrait, 1911 from Pavlova Repertoire of a Legend by John and Roberta Lazzarini Anna Pavlova interviewed with the Observer in 1921, where she addressed mental health. Pavlova didn't hide anything in the interview. She was very open about dancers dealing with depression, including her own.  Others in this period saw this as a taboo subject and were afraid to even talk about mental health in public. Vaslav Nijinsky wrote about his mental health struggles in his diary because he felt this was the only safe place he thought he could express his feeling and not be judged or criticized for them. Others who had struggles with their mental health would only share their struggles with trusted confidants and letters. Again people were so afraid of public scrutiny they would only let this be known in their private writings. Pavlova was very open-minded about things that most people were not. She was a visionary and forward thinker, so it shouldn't be sur

  Photo Credit: Anna Pavlova in costume for the Chopin Variations (also known as Love's Message) 1911 from Anna Pavlova Her Life & Art By Keith Money Anna Pavlova was interviewing with the Daily Mail on November 2, 1911, and the interviewer accompanied her as she was shopping for stockings while answering the interviewer's questions. The interviewer thought they would spend all day in this one store, but Anna Pavlova got distracted when she saw sweets and bon-bons. Pavlova immediately started choosing sweets which the interviewer says how much they bought would last for four months. The sweets were not for her though they were for all the children she knew and London and friends in Russia who had never tasted English sweets. She also bought sweets for the interviewer. The interviewer was caught off guard by her shopping for others and not herself, but he found it even more fascinating that Anna Pavlova didn't like chocolate like the women he knew. Anna Pavlova instead l

Photo Credit: Pavlova visiting the Laura Knight exhibition in 1920: behind her are Knight's paintings of Pavlova taking a curtain call after  Autumn Leaves,  and her company in  The Magic Flute  From V& A Images  Anna Pavlova wanted to enrich her company dancers' lives with not just ballet but knowing other arts. She did this by sending them to visit many art museums to see all types of different art. When she would see them when they return from the gallery, she would quiz them on what they saw. Some of her company dancers embraced the idea while others did not and would go to the galleries and leave right after entering. These actions frustrated Pavlova and hurt her because she could not understand why they did not want to brighten their horizons, learn new things and learn about another culture like she loved doing. No, her company dancers seemed not to share Pavlova's interest in enrichment, and I think this complacently bothered Pavlova deeply. Pavlova loved art, a