A couple years ago I used to think that ballet was boring. I did not understand ballet as an art and did not recognize its classical and modern types. Dances like hip-hop, samba, rumba, cha-cha, tango, and disco appealed to me more. Once I tried ballet myself in the U.S., I realized that most of the great dancers learned ballet for a lengthy amount of time. I decided to take ballet classes and after a year I realized that ballet brings me indescribable joy and appeasement. I became interested in learning more about ballet itself and its famous dancers. One of such a dancer was Anna Pavlova, whose life story I am determined to tell. It is important to note Anna Pavlova’s childhood and early ballet career in Russia, her debut in The Dying Swan, emigration to Europe, performances around the world, marriage, and death.

Childhood and early career:

Anna Pavlova was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on a cold winter day of February 12, 1881. According to a New York Times article, when Anna was eight years old, her mother took her to a performance of “The Sleeping Beauty”. There, Anna experienced an epiphany, a baptism by ballet. From that day she knew, ballet was her future. At the age of ten, Anna Pavlova was admitted to the Imperial School of Ballet. Shortly after her acceptance to the Imperial School of Ballet, the exceptional gift of dancing was noticed in Anna Pavlova (Kent, 1996). At that time ballet was considered a court luxury and was one of the favorite entertainments of the late Czar. He would often visit the school to admire the little dancers, talking to them and sometimes telling jokes (Anna Pavlova Dies…,1996).

In 1902 after her graduation from the Imperial School of Ballet, Anna Pavlova joined the Maryinsky Theater as a second soloist, and in the following year was promoted to a first soloist (“The Legendary”, n.d.). Alexander Pleshcheyev, an author of the book “Our Ballet” where he studied Petersburg Imperial Ballet Company, wrote about Anna Pavlova:

“I recall the frail, slender, tall and lithe figure of a yo