The other version is the biological father of a ballerina banker Lazar Polyakov, whose family love Pavlova served. Before the birth of the child she went and raised a daughter alone. First memory of Anna due to their small house in St. Petersburg, where they lived together very poorly.
In spite of the constant shortage of money, the mother contrived to please a girl unexpected surprises. One of them was going to the theater. It was the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" at the Mariinsky Theatre. Barely sounded music and dancers appeared on the scene, little Anna paused in admiration. This extraordinary evening ballerina remembers as a turning point in his life, after which it irrevocably in love with ballet.
Anna Pavlova was only 8 years old when her mother brought her to the school dance. However, according to the rules then existing in the world of ballet, students took only 10 years. Two years she spent in agonizing wait and then, finally, was admitted to the Imperial Ballet School.
Discipline in the institution was the iron, but that is what enables graduates to master perfectly valuable classical technique. Anna Pavlova was recognized that almost did not notice the spartan living conditions and education, so it was absorbed by the activities.
Only one trouble marred her life - physical disability, which was not supposed to have a ballerina in those years. It was the fragility of Anna, from which she was trying to get rid of using intensive feeding and receiving fish oil. However, the benefits of this were few.
At last the teacher training courses Pavel Gerdt noticed the other side of this quality. He persuaded Anne that her small size - it is a rare gift, not a curse. With this ballerina was very plastic and can perform movements with a special grace, that was not characteristic of other dancers.
In 1899, at the Mariinsky Theatre debut as Anna Pavlova. For some time she played a minor role, as the theater management did not trust an unknown dancer without ties and name. However, in 1900, she received one of the main parties in the play "The Awakening of Flora", and in 1902 made his own interpretation of the image of Nikiya in "La Bayadere", forever changing the technical execution of the heroine. The same way she did with Giselle.
In 1903, Anna Pavlova danced at the Bolshoi Theatre, which began with its procession through the cities of Russia, and later in other countries. So much touring, how much was at Paul's, there was still none of the ballerina. Soon the dance led her to Paris, where Anna has become a major part of the famous "Russian Seasons" by Sergei Diaghilev. As part of his company she gained international fame, but soon left.
In 1910, Anna Pavlova founded his own company, for which she staged performances and miniatures. Among them - "The Night", "Dragonfly" and "Valse-Caprice". Pavlova tour lasted for 22 years until her death in early 1931. Performances took place every day, only occasionally allowed herself a ballerina day of rest. Monstrous fatigue was her permanent state, but it could not compare to the joy she felt, dancing to its viewers. In 1914, she finally left home, but in the difficult post-revolutionary years strongly supported the students of the ballet school, transferring large amounts. As objects of its charitable actions were starving Volga and other needy compatriots.