Active Years: 1881-1931

Position: Russian ballet dancer and choreographer.

Career Highlights: Pavlova is considered by some to be the perfect female ballerina. She is best remembered for her role as the Dying Swan in Fokine’s The Swan. In film, her name was spread through The Dumb Girl of Portici,done in 1916.

Career Totals: Pavlova danced her first lead role in Marius Petipa’s The Two Stars.In addition to performing in countless ballets and touring extensively, she also choreographed about 14 pieces.

Scouting Report: Pavlova reportedly knew that she wanted to be a ballet dancer when she saw her first performance at eight years of age. Her enthusiasm had to be held off for two years, however, when she began studying at the Imperial Ballet School. She performed in front of Czar Nicholas before graduating, and began her career with the Maryinski Theatre directly afterwards. She brought ballet to the broad range of the United States by touring the provinces in the early 1900s, introducing her beauty and art to the masses.

Teammates and Contemporaries: Pavlova danced under Petipa, Mikhail Fokine and Serge Diaghilev, the great choreographers of the time. She criticized the more modern choreographers of her time such as Isadora Duncan.

Fun Statistic: Pavlova’s 1910 performance of Coppelia at the Metropolitan Opera House was so stunning that the audience did something well out of the ordinary - the stayed en masse late into the night and even later until the performance ended at 1 a.m. the next morning.