Anna Pavlova (1881-1931): Bringing Ballet to the World

 

On the night that Anna was supposed to have given her next performance, the audience sat quietly in the theatre. The curtain opened onto an empty stage, lit by a solitary spotlight. As the music of The Dying Swan played, many people wept openly. The curtain closed. Anna Pavlova would never dance again.

            Anna once wrote: “I desire that my message of beauty and joy and life shall be taken up and carried on after me…. If I have achieved even that little for my art, I am content.”

 

Dynamic Women Dancers (The Women’s Hall of Fame Series)

ISBN 1-897187-56-2

Toronto: Second Story Press, 2009

Printed with permission from Second Story Press

www.secondstorypress.ca

All rights reserved.