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Pavlova (Anna) Collection
MS.P.050  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Processing History
  • Biography
  • Biographical/Historical note
  • Collection Scope and Content Summary
  • Collection Arrangement
  • Bibliography

  • Contributing Institution: Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
    Title: Collection on Anna Pavlova
    Creator: UCI Libraries. Department of Special Collections and Archives
    Identifier/Call Number: MS.P.050
    Physical Description: 0.8 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
    Date (inclusive): 1911-1981
    Date (bulk): 1912-1931
    Abstract: The collection comprises dance programs, photographs, postcards, clippings, and tributes assembled by the University of California, Irvine, Special Collections and Archives to document the career of Anna Pavlova, a ballerina who was renowned for her inspiring performances and for generating world-wide interest in ballet through her tours of the Americas and the Far East. The collection also contains papers from Pavlova's private student Beatrice Griffiths, documenting Griffiths' dance lessons and participation in Pavlova's dance company and including a typed letter of recommendation signed by Pavlova.
    Language of Material: English .

    Access

    The collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Property rights reside with the University of California. Printed materials created before 1923 are in the public domain. For other materials, literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish other materials, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

    Preferred Citation

    Collection on Anna Pavlova. MS-P050. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
    For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired, 1985, 2001.

    Processing History

    Processed by Cyndi Shein 2007.

    Biography

    Between 1898 and 1930, Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova was one of the most celebrated dancers in the world and generated world-wide interest in classical ballet. Her dance style was renowned for its artistry and grace in an era dominated by strength and academic technique. She danced professionally for over twenty years and tirelessly brought ballet to people who had never before had the opportunity to experience it. Sometime after 1912 she formed her own company and traveled with her troupe to six continents, dancing in small provinces as well as big cities. She incorporated multi-cultural dances into her repertoire and brought dances from East Asia and Mexico to central Europe and North America. Pavlova choreographed solos for herself and created a short ballet called Autumn Leaves. Her signature dance was Le Cygne (The Swan), which combined very traditional footwork with less formal, expressive arm movements. Through Le Cygne, Pavlova touched audiences deeply by communicating the fragility of life. She portrayed a dying swan by dancing passionately en point through the entire dance and leaving her toes only in surrender to death at the very end.
    Professionally, Pavlova was ever in the spotlight, but she managed to keep much of her personal life private. The claim that she was married to her manager Victor Dandré is unsubstantiated, though they were domestic partners for many years. She had no children of her own, but following the devastation of World War I, Pavlova established a home for Russian orphans at St. Cloud near Paris. At her home in London, Ivy House, Pavlova kept many pets, including a pair of white swans.
    Throughout her life, Pavlova maintained an exhausting pace of traveling and tours and is reputed to never have missed a scheduled performance. On a cold December night in 1930, while en route to the Netherlands, the train on which Pavlova was traveling broke down, stranding her in the cold for hours. She caught a chill, which developed into pneumonia and then pleurisy. For the first time in her career, Anna Pavlova cancelled a show. She died January 23, 1931.

    Biographical/Historical note

    Chronology

    1881 January 31 Born in St. Petersburg, Russia to mother Lyubov Fyodorovna Pavlova. (Date of birth given as February 12, 1881 in some sources.)
    1892 Admitted to the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg.
    1898 Made official stage début at the Maryinsky.
    1899 April Graduated form the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg.
    1905 Began to study with Enrico Cecchetti.
    1907 December Le Cygne (The Swan).
    1908 Toured Riga, Helsingfors, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.
    1909 Spring Toured Leipzig, Prague, and Vienna.
    1909 Summer Le Cygne
    1910 April 18 Opened at the Palace Theatre in London.
    1910 Made her American debut performing Coppelia with Michel Mordkin at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
    1911 Engaged Laurent Novikoff as dance partner. Toured London with the Ballets Russe. Appeared in St. Petersburg.
    1912 Ivy House
    1913 Toured Germany. Appeared in St. Petersburg.
    1914 Ivy House.
    1915 The Sleeping Beauty.
    1916 The Dumb Girl of Portici.
    1917 Toured Havana, Cuba.
    1918 Toured Mexico and South America.
    1920-21 Solicited funds and established an orphanage in Paris, France for Russian refugee children.
    1922-23 Toured the Far East.
    1925 Toured the European continent.
    1926-27 Toured South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.
    1927 Toured England, Germany, and Italy.
    1928-29 Embarked on her last world tour, which included South America, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Java, Burma, and Australia. Engaged Pierre Vladimiroff as her dance partner.
    1930 December 13 Giselle.
    1931 January 23 Died of pleurisy at The Hague, Netherlands. Cremated and buried at Golders Green, London.

    Collection Scope and Content Summary

    The collection comprises dance programs, photographs, postcards, clippings, and tributes assembled by the University of California, Irvine Special Collections and Archives to document the career of Anna Pavlova, a ballerina who was renowned for her inspiring performances and for generating world-wide interest in ballet through her tours of the Americas and the Far East. The collection also contains papers from Pavlova's private student Beatrice Griffiths, documenting Griffiths' dance lessons and participation in Pavlova's dance company and including a typed letter of recommendation signed by Pavlova.
    The term "event program" is used to describe materials printed for particular performances and include the names of participants or performing arts organizations. Event programs often contain specific times, dates, and ticket information. The term "souvenir program" is used to describe materials that were issued annually or seasonally. Souvenir programs usually contain descriptions of selected dances and images of featured performers but often lack specific information about performance titles, times, and dates.

    Collection Arrangement

    This collection is arranged alphabetically by format. Within each format, items are arranged alphabetically or chronologically as appropriate.
    Frank, A. H. (ed.). Pavlova, a Biography. Bath, England: Pitman Press, 1956.Magriel, Paul. Pavlova, an Illustrated Monograph. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1947.Money, Keith. Anna Pavlova, Her Life and Art. New York : A. A. Knopf, 1982.Pritchard, Jane. "Pavlova, Anna Pavlovna (1881–1931)." In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37836 (accessed July 27, 2007).

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Ballet dancers.
    Photographic prints -- 20th century.
    Postcards -- 20th century.
    Dance cards
    Souvenir programs -- 20th century.
    Ballet -- History -- Sources.
    Ballets russes -- History -- Sources.
    Pavlova, Anna -- Archives
    Griffiths, Beatrice -- Archives