PAVLOVA: A Biography

by A. H.- Ed. Franks ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 3, 1956

With the Pavlova Commemoration Committee, A. H. Franks presents a volume of recollection and candid praise in honor of the ballerina twenty-five years after her death. More of a memoir than the biography of the subtitle, this includes a biographical sketch by the editor, the memories of impresario Sol Hurok, of student Muriel Stuart, of her ""children"" in her corps de ballet, a dance partner- Novikov, choreographer Michel Fokine. Ram Gopal reviews the effect Anna had upon Indian dance and what she took from it, giving back even to a Hindu a religious experience in her spiritual transformation of physical motion. There is a glimpse of Anna as she tells of her vision of vocation (also recounted by the biographer) at eight. The whole gives a picture of the dedicated, dynamic prima ballerina who traveled all over the world to dance for everyone, who thought genius was born, not made, but who toiled and suffered to maintain the art of dance (conflicting with Diaghilev and his stress on ballet), who drove her dancers with discipline and could not be wrong, but who loved children enough to support and supervise a home for thirty-odd refugees.

Pub Date: April 3, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION