12 February: Anna Pavlova

12th February was the birthday of the ballerina Anna Pavlova. Here are some facts about her:

1. We don't know for sure who her father is, as she was born out of wedlock, but her mother was Lyubov Feodorovna, a laundress. She later married Matvey Pavlov, from whom Anna got her last name.
2. The first time she auditioned for ballet school, she was turned down. At the age of nine, she was considered to young and sickly. She tried again the following year and got in.
3. Even then, acclaim didn't come easily. She had weak ankles, severely arched feet and was tall and thin when ballerinas of the time tended to be small and compact. Her fellow students called her "the broom" and "La petite sauvage" (The little savage). She took extra lessons and practised hard.
4. Her first ever stage appearance was in a school production, in Marius Petipa's Un conte de Fées (A Fairy Tale). She made her official début at the Mariinsky Theatre in Pavel Gerdt's Les Dryades prétendues (The False Dryads).
5. Although critics and audiences loved her, Anna's style of dancing often went against the academic rules of her time. Her posture wasn't always absolutely correct and sometimes she'd get carried away with enthusiasm. On one occasion she lost her balance and fell into the prompter's box.
6. Because of her weak ankles and arched feet, she altered her pointe shoes by adding a piece of wood for support. At the time, this was considered cheating - the ballerina's toes were supposed to take her weight. However, her designs became the basis for modern ballet shoes. All the same, Anna was embarrassed by the way her feet looked in pictures wearing these shoes, so she often had photos altered so she appeared to be wearing traditional shoes.
7. She was a choreographer as well as a dancer. One of her works is The Dragonfly, a short ballet set to music by Fritz Kreisler. While performing the role, Pavlova wore a gossamer gown with large dragonfly wings fixed to the back.
8. She was a lifelong animal lover and kept numerous pets - Cats, Dogs and birds, which would often appear in portraits with her. Some of her pets were Swans, and she had a favourite swan, named Jack.
9. Anna Pavlova was just 49 when she died. She contracted pneumonia and was told she needed an operation to save her life - but if she had the op, she would never dance again. She refused the surgery saying, "If I can't dance then I'd rather be dead." Her last words were, "Get my 'Swan' costume ready."
10. The Pavlova dessert (a meringue cake with a crisp crust and soft, light inside, usually topped with fruit and, optionally, whipped cream) is thought to have been created in her honour in Wellington during her tour of New Zealand and Australia in the 1920s.