The fragile girl, who was initially denied entry to the Russian Imperial Choreographic School because of her fragility, Anna Pavlova became one of the most famous classical choreographers in history and was a mystery both during her life and after her death.
Childhood and youth
Her very birth was the first in a long series of myths related to Anna Pavlova and her personality. Little Anna was born two months ahead of schedule and as a newborn she was wrapped in soft wool instead of napkins. If so, then it would be very symbolic for the ballerina, whose author's work later became the role of the dying swan in Swan Lake.
It is known that Anna’s mother Lyubov Pavlova was a laundress, while her father’s personality remains unclear. It is debated whether this was the husband Matvey, a soldier of the Russian army, or Lazar Polyakov, the banker in whose house she served before Anna's birth.
At the age of eight, Anechka falls into the St. Petersburg Imperial Mariinsky Theater to the Tchaikovsky Ballet Sleeping Beauty. It was there that she fell in love with ballet once and for all. From that moment, Anna raved about dancing and persuaded her mother to take her to audition for a ballet school, but she was denied admission because of her young age and fragility.
The future ballet star was a slender girl with an “airy” physique, while a strong physique was considered necessary for the dancer to perform complex movements and figures.
But fortunately, the great choreographer Marius Petipa met on her way, who saw her talent, and Anna was finally accepted as a student in 1891. Studying at the Imperial Ballet School with its iron discipline was very difficult. Students had to get up early in the morning, take a cold shower, have breakfast, and then start classes that lasted until late in the evening, interrupted only by dinner, performances and short walks in the fresh air.
Free time was rare, and Anna Pavlova usually devoted it to reading and drawing.
For a very long time, Anna believed that her technical prowess was limited by her physical abilities, until one of her teachers, Pavel Gerdt, told her: “let others do acrobatic stunts. What you consider a disadvantage is actually a rare gift that sets you apart from thousands.
