Uploaded November 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
This is a seriously snippit-ish snippet of film of Anna Pavlova executing a few steps of what has been described as being from 'Les Sylphides’. The footage comes from ‘Weltbühne Berlin Die Zwanziger Jahre’, which documented the nineteen twenties in Berlin, Germany.
The footage was shot outdoors - at the lake side of her home, Ivy House, in Golders Green.
The costume is consistent with those in various photographs of the ballerina in this role, including the little gossamer wings at her back, wings seen to better advantage in the following footage of the ballerina feeding her favourite swan, Jack, taken the same day by the lake in the same costume.
There is, however, the possibility that Pavlova just wore this costume because it was at hand and that the choreography is not Fokine as there's not enough footage to be sure.
As the film is so very short, I’ve looped it three times to give a better sense of it.
Has anyone any further understandings of this tiny piece of film?
Postscript:
The second image used at the beginning of the footage is Valentin Serov’s poster for the first Ballets Russes season in 1909 in Paris, featuring Anna Pavlova in ‘Les Sylphides. The third image is a photograph by Spencer Shier of Anna Pavlova and Laurent Novikoff and corps de ballet in Melbourne in 1926, with the ballet being advertised as ‘Chopiniana’.
Enjoy!
This is a seriously snippit-ish snippet of film of Anna Pavlova executing a few steps of what has been described as being from 'Les Sylphides’. The footage comes from ‘Weltbühne Berlin Die Zwanziger Jahre’, which documented the nineteen twenties in Berlin, Germany.
The footage was shot outdoors - at the lake side of her home, Ivy House, in Golders Green.
The costume is consistent with those in various photographs of the ballerina in this role, including the little gossamer wings at her back, wings seen to better advantage in the following footage of the ballerina feeding her favourite swan, Jack, taken the same day by the lake in the same costume.
There is, however, the possibility that Pavlova just wore this costume because it was at hand and that the choreography is not Fokine as there's not enough footage to be sure.
As the film is so very short, I’ve looped it three times to give a better sense of it.
Has anyone any further understandings of this tiny piece of film?
Postscript:
The second image used at the beginning of the footage is Valentin Serov’s poster for the first Ballets Russes season in 1909 in Paris, featuring Anna Pavlova in ‘Les Sylphides. The third image is a photograph by Spencer Shier of Anna Pavlova and Laurent Novikoff and corps de ballet in Melbourne in 1926, with the ballet being advertised as ‘Chopiniana’.
Enjoy!
