Celebrity is a strange phenomenon, the way you come to feel close to a person you’ve never met. In an odd way, though, discovering Pavlova’s visit was like discovering ancestral traces. My mother was born in Russia, and the names of my favourite Russian artists have always carried emotional weight as reminders of the country her family fled during the Bolshevik revolution. Pavlova, Nijinsky, Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky. Beyond my love for their dancing, music, and novels, it’s as if this quartet of artists belongs to my circle of intimate friends and relations. I am more familiar with their names and stories than those of my own family tree …
Bio:
Kaija Pepper is the editor of Dance International magazine. Her book Falling into Flight: A Memoir of Life and Dance was published by Signature Editions in 2020.