Anna Pavlova

The most famous ballerina of the past century—Anna Pavlova. As a child, people considered her too thin and awkward, and almost no one believed in her success—no one except Anna Pavlova herself. One day, when she was taken with her mother to a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre, the girl literally “caught the bug” for dancing. With dreams of it, she fell asleep and woke up—and she knew for sure that she, too, would dance and undoubtedly be the best. She managed to persuade her mother to enroll her in a ballet school. And so began the remarkable journey of a girl who later grew up and became the most famous prima ballerina of all time, inspiring legions of dancers after her: a brave, generous, extraordinarily gifted genius Russian ballerina—Anna Pavlova. She devoted herself entirely to ballet; rumors and legends circulated about her personal life. And only after her death did the veil of mystery lift, and the world learned about the only love in the ballerina’s life—her husband, Viktor Dandré.

Even during her lifetime, Anna Pavlova told her husband that he should write a book about her, because no one knew her better than he did. And now the wish of the great ballerina has been fulfilled—giving us a unique opportunity to meet the story of Anna Pavlova’s life “from the first hand,” to learn about her thoughts, aspirations, disappointments, successes, and sorrows.

In addition to my own closeness to Anna Pavlovna, I have met thousands of people all over the world who came to express to Anna Pavlovna their feelings of admiration and love. Talking with them, receiving letters from them during Anna Pavlova’s life—as well as after her passing—I could understand, more deeply than anyone else, what an extraordinary beacon of beauty and love Anna Pavlovna was. From all human sources, I only received confirmation of the correctness of my understanding of this exceptional person. I will be immensely happy if I can present in this book a complete image of Anna Pavlovna with all that lofty charm for which people loved her so much—as both a woman and an artist. I think it won’t be difficult. To do Anna Pavlovna justice, one must speak only the truth. V. Dandré