Anna Pavlova was born on February 12, 1881, in St. Petersburg, Russia. After attending the Imperial Ballet School, she made her company debut in 1899 and quickly became prima ballerina. Her breakthrough performance was in The Dying Swan in 1905, which became her signature role. She joined the Ballet Russe in 1909 and formed her own company in 1911. Contracting double pneumonia while on tour, Pavlova died in 1931.
Early Life
Ballerina Anna Pavlova was born Anna Matveyevna Pavlovna Pavlova on February 12, 1881—a cold and snowy winter's day—in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her mother, Lyubov Feodorovna was a washerwoman. Her stepfather, Matvey Pavlov, was a reserve soldier. The identity of Anna Pavlova's biological father is unknown, though some speculate that her mother had an affair with a banker named Lazar Poliakoff. As a child, Anna preferred to believe she was a product of an earlier marriage. She told people her mother had once been married to a man named Pavel, who died when Anna was just a toddler. Yet this Pavel remains something of a mystery to historians and biographers.