As a student, I had this photo of the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova on my wall. She is seen here posing with her pet swan, Jack. I didn’t know then that it was taken in the gardens of her London home ‘Ivy House’ where she lived from 1912 to her death in 1931. An imposing building in Golder’s Green, she bought it as soon as she saw its lake.
Once the home of the Romanticist painter JMW Turner, it was here that Pavlova found happiness and sanctuary. And it was here that she set up her ballet school.
Pavlova’s London life coincided with an artistic renaissance in the capital. Her very presence was a key part of this revival. Presence, of course, was never something Pavlova was short of…indeed, even now, visitors to Ivy House (now a Jewish cultural centre) still talk of feeling her ‘spirit’ in the rooms.
That ‘spirit’ is one of elegance, beauty and artistic grace – as displayed here in one of my favourite clips from the archives. And so, one final connection with England: Michel Fokine was inspired by Tennyson’s poem ‘The Dying Swan’ to create Pavlova’s most iconic role
