Skip to main content

Story: Ballet

Anna Pavlova, 1926

When she visited New Zealand in 1926, Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova was greeted with great enthusiasm. Before her Wellington performances, the Evening Postnewspaper described Pavlova as a 'great dancer' of 'outstanding genius', for whose work audiences had displayed the 'utmost enthusiasm'. Pavlova's dancers, like those who visited with Danish dancer Adeline Genée in 1913,  were trained in the Russian tradition.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-A-DANCE-1926-02

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Jennifer Shennan, Ballet – Beginnings of ballet in New Zealand, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/43125/anna-pavlova-1926 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jennifer Shennan, published 22 October 2013.