About the production

On Sunday 4 March 2012 the Russian Ballet Icons Gala, will be dedicated to Anna Pavlova and 100 years of the establishment of Anna Pavlova House in London, will take place at the London Coliseum.  Part of the Russian Ballet Icons series, the gala evening opens the Pavlova 2012 Festival marking the centenary of Anna Pavlova making her home in London at Ivy House.

The evening will present a unique opportunity to see several pieces from Pavlova’s repertoire such as Paquita, The Pharoah’s Daughter, Le Roi Candaule, Giselle, La Bayadére, The Sleeping Beauty, Marcobomba, and including rarely performed pieces Egyptian Nights and Dragon Flight, which will be restored especially for this gala, as well as contemporary dedications to this great icon of ballet. The programme will be presented by dancers from world leading companies: The Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres, the Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet and the Grand Paris Ballet, the Berlin and the Bavarian Staatsoper, American Ballet Theatre and Milan's La Scala including: Maxim Beloserkovsky, Alessio Carbone, Alina Cojocaru, Marlon Dino, Irina Dvorovenko, Dorothée Gilbert, Daria Klimentova, Johan Kobborg, Lucia Lacarra, Vladislav Lantratov, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Ulyana Lopatkina, David Makhateli, Vadim Muntagirov, Giuseppe Picone, Sergei Polunin, Tamara Rojo, Iana Salenko, Marat Shemiunov, Olga Smirnova, Alina Somova, Natalia Somova, Anastasia Stashkevich, Marian Walter, Svetlana Zakharova and Igor Zelensky and others. Arts promoter Ensemble Productions is proud to present the evening, under the artistic direction of Wayne Eagling (English National Ballet’s artistic director), with accompaniment by the orchestra of the English National Ballet under the direction of Valeriy Ovsyannikov.

Born 31 January 1881 in St. Petersburg she was accepted into the Imperial Ballet School in 1891 at the tender age of ten, and on graduation began to perform at the Mariinsky Theatre. Her performances were met with great acclaim, and another tour followed in 1908. In 1909 the impresario Sergei Diaghilev staged a historic season of Russian ballet in Paris, and Anna Pavlova appeared briefly with the company there and later in London. In 1914 she was traveling through Germany on her way to England when Germany declared war on Russia and her connection to the Motherland was for all intents broken. For the rest of her life she kept a home in London, which is today known as Anna Pavlova House.

For details about the VIP post-performance dinner please contact Ensemble Productions on 020 8832 7424 or email: info@ensembleproductions.co.uk.