Curio Cabinet | January 12, 2026

Anna Pavlova: Ambassador of Classical Ballet    

The function of dancing is to give men the sight of an unreal world, beautiful, dazzling as his dreams. For dancing is pure romance, and it is by this great romance that man sees himself, not as he is, but as he should be: beautiful, free, healthy, happy, carefree.  

–Anna Pavlova 

For months, Lyubov Pavlova took in extra work as a washwoman to afford her eight-year-old daughter Anna’s Christmas gift: ballet tickets to see The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Wearing a smocked dress of ruffles and lace, hair pinned back with a large black bow, Anna accompanied her mother to the “gods,” the cheapest, highest seats in the theater. Tchaikovsky’s melody played as a red velvet curtain rose on a set that evoked the grandeur of France under the reign of King Louis XIV. Anna was mesmerized; she had never seen such opulence. She was also quickly enchanted by a prologue celebrating the birth of a long-awaited princess who was visited by six fairies during her christening. To Anna, each dancer was more beautiful and graceful than the last as they bestowed on the baby virtues such as beauty, wit, and courage. 

In the lobby after the ballet, when her mother asked if she would like to dance the waltz someday, Anna announced, “One day I shall be a princess and shall dance upon the stage of this theater.” Her mother explained that a dancing career would require her to live at a ballet school. Anna replied that she had no desire to leave her, but if to become a ballerina she must, she would resign herself to it.