On January 23, 1931, a seriously ill woman lay quietly in a clean white bed. On the wall opposite the bed was a huge painting of a flock of beautiful white swans leaping up from the water, and were waving their wings in the face of the soft sun, and going off in a long song. The woman had a thin face, already tortured by the serious illness, but still revealed a noble temperament. She quietly looked at the swan in the painting. Suddenly, she raised her head slightly and said softly to the maid beside her, "Prepare my swan dress". After saying this, she closed her eyes, her arms shook slightly for a few moments, and then she fell silent and did not move. The maid lost her voice and wept. When the news broke, the ballet performance in the London theater came to an abrupt end, and "The Death of the Swan" was immediately played in memory of the great woman who "danced for all the world".
The American ballet historian, Ms. Lillian Moore, praised the great woman in a beautiful poem:
"Beauty, a theme that dies for life and lives for death.
A ray of light in the darkness, a miracle in the midst of triviality, a halo and a magic.
Beauty, a gospel she would cry out for,
until the most diaphanous also saw the metaphorical flame of the apocalypse.
The great woman who passed away vaguely put on that white swan dress again and flew on the ethereal occasion of heaven."
She, Anna Pavlova by name.
She was the greatest and holiest swan on the ballet stage in the 20th century.
Pavlova was born on February 12, 1881, in Petersburg, Russia.
No one in Pavlova's family practiced the arts. Her father left her and her daughter at an early age. The family lived on the meager wages of her mother, who worked as a laundryman. Pavlova's childhood was full of pain and suffering, and only her loving mother could make this sensitive child feel the warmth of life.
In 1889, her mother did the most honorable thing in her life. That Christmas, her mother used the money she had saved from her laundry to take little Pavlova to the Mariinsky Theater to see the classical ballet masterpiece "Sleeping Beauty," and little Pavlova was simply delighted. She had passed outside the doors of that noble theater many times, and each time she had peeped out of the corner of her eye, and the noble people had poured in and out, and she felt that she was separated from this sacred temple by a great river that never had an edge, and that she had not dared, in her highest extravagance, to think of going to the inside to see a performance, and sitting in it on equal footing with the noble people. She felt that she had simply become a happy princess.
Yes, little Pavlova really did become a princess.
She thought she was a princess when her mother took her little hand and walked into the rich, neat, beautiful Mariinsky Theater. She thought she was the princess when Princess Aurora danced her way across the stage during the performance. When the performance was over, she said to her mother, "I want to be the princess on stage." Little Pavlova was completely mesmerized by the ballet. This great Christmas gift from her mother thus defined Pavlova's life.
Since then, Pavlova has been begging her mother to let her take ballet lessons. Once again, her enlightened mother did something significant and sent young Pavlova to the Imperial Ballet School. In this strict school, after the guidance of many famous teachers, little Pavlova gradually grew up.
In 1898, Pavlova graduated with honors, and then joined the Mariinsky Ballet as a group dancer. With her impeccable dancing, the young Pavlova became a leading lady in just a few years.
Pavlova's breakout role was Giselle. It is a two-act ballet that has been called the "masterpiece of romantic ballet tragedy" and is the oldest in the Mariinsky Ballet's repertoire. It was premiered in Paris in 1841 by the Italian star Grisi. As the play requires great acting talent, no one has ever been able to perform it perfectly. The young Pavlova captured the essence of the play at once, and she took the role so perfectly that she became a sensation in the city. Since then, the play has been performed by Pavlova.
Pavlova was not satisfied with this small achievement, she knew that there were still many shortcomings in her performance, so she continued to learn from famous teachers. Pavlova sought lessons from Sokolova, Johnson, Beretta and Cecchetti. As a result, Pavlova became even more skillful.
In 1907, Pavlova was preparing to perform a program for a fund-raising charity show, but could not find a suitable piece, so she asked Fokine, known as the "father of modern ballet," to help her.
As soon as he saw the slender, elegant Pavlova, he thought of the melody of French composer Saint-Sa?ns's "The Swan". He felt Pavlova was best suited to perform this noble, pure figure who aspires to immortality, as a white swan caught in loneliness because she is so beautiful emerges from the backstage with streaming, toe-curling broken steps. A snowy spotlight gently guards her from entering the brooding darkness beside her. Light and delicate, she danced in a ceaseless broken step, chasing the dazzling light. She expresses the permanence of life in her tiny dance steps. Her arms gently shook, her head and neck occasionally turned, full of the life of the dying wordless grief. Eventually, she collapsed, falling in a flurry of twirling in place with quivering arms, her head tilted back to the light.
Pavlova became world-famous for this performance of The Swan. Her perfect dancing and elegance earned her the title of "The Immortal Swan". The Swan became Pavlova's most famous masterpiece. From then on, Pavlova began to cooperate with Fokine, thus creating one masterpiece after another. For example, "The Vine", "Eunice", "Egyptian Nights", "Almeida's Palace", "Chopin Suite" and so on.
The success of the performances made Pavlova win the hearts of countless audiences. They followed her like crazy and protected her so that this pure and noble swan would not be harmed in the slightest. This particularly touched the sensitive Pavlova, who said, "I will dance for everyone in the world."
With such a great goal in mind, Pavlova was not all talk and no action. She danced all over the four continents in the spirit of her dedication to the cause, and except for the unpopulated Antarctica, which she didn't go to, all the other four continents retained her noble, graceful stance. She traveled all over the world, chief among them London, Paris, Berlin, the countries of North and South America, Japan, China, the Philippines, Burma, India, Java, Australia, Egypt, and so on. She sent the eternal swan around the world. She inspired many dance-loving young people to take the path of ballet.
December 13, 1930, has been seriously ill Pavlova unexpectedly appeared in London's Green Theatre. The audience applauded her appearance and gave her a cordial greeting. Once again Pavlova showed her pure, immaculate, noble dance on the stage, and once again that beautiful white swan was dancing and spinning perfectly down. But this time for the last time.
January 23, 1931, became a permanent wound in people's memories.