Olga Sapphire

Pavlova was born during a period of Turbulence, as the 1905 Russian Revolution had begun two years beforehand.

Olga Sapphire (Ольга Сафайя or Ольга Сапфир, オリガ・サファイア, 28 June 1907 – 20 June 1981) was the stage name of Russian and Japanese ballerina and choreographer Olga Ivanovna Pavlova (Ольга Ивановна Павлова), whose married name was Midori Shimizu (清水みどり).

She was classically trained at both the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute and the Moscow Choreographic School.

Pavlova was born on 28 June 1907 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to Juliana Kuzminichna Kuzmina and Gustav Yanovich Grudberg.

Her parents had a common-law marriage, as they were unable to wed since Grudberg was not a member of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Her father was a locksmith, originally from Riga, and her mother was originally from Pskov near the Estonian border.

When their first child, Ekaterina, was born, she was baptized with the surname Pavlova, a family name of her great-uncle.

Olga was given the same surname.

World War I would follow when she was seven years old, and the 1917 Russian Revolution began when she was 10.

Pavlova later wrote that her childhood was at a time of cold and hunger.

From an early age, Pavlova was highly interested in ballet, but given her family's circumstances, life as an artist was improbable.

When World War I broke out, her mother began working in the store of the People's House, the center of the cultural scene in Saint Petersburg.

Against her husband's wishes, Kuzmina encouraged her daughter and at age 12, Pavlova entered the free school located at #3 Gagarinskaya Street.

It was run by Baron Yuri Nikolaevich Miklos, who had opened it in a philanthropic effort to develop dance.

He hired noted instructors to teach classical ballet, as well as ballroom and character dancing.

Students received four years of lectures before taking their final examinations.

Pavlova studied under Apollinaria Gordova and was classmates with Igor Shvetsov.

In 1922, when the authorities closed the Miklos school, she transferred to a school operated by Akim Volynsky and studied theory, taking evening dance courses at the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute.

The Stalinist period was difficult as classical ballets were being replaced with ideological themes and ballet masters were relocating to the west.

At her 1928 graduation, Pavlova performed as a soloist in fragments choreographed by Marius Petipa from La vestale by Gaspare Spontini.

Pavlova danced with Vakhtang Chabukiani and Sergey Gavrilovich Koren in scenes from the ballet The Masque of the Red Death (Маскарад Красной Смерти) by Nikolai Tcherepnin, on 10 November 1928.

The following spring, she joined a dance troupe which traveled to Russian Turkestan, performing at Tashkent, before being invited to dance as a soloist in the theater operated by Alexey Feona.

She performed in Russia until her marriage in the early 1930s to a Japanese diplomat, Takehisa Shimizu.

Along with other evening students from the Choreographic Institute, she performed at the Maly Opera House and was invited to participate in a touring company that traveled all over Russia between 1931 and 1932.

During the tour, she danced the lead role of Taï-Choa in The Red Poppy to the music of Reinhold Glière.

In Moscow, Pavlova began studying with Viktor Semenov (Виктор Александрович Семёнов), head of the Moscow Choreographic School between 1931 and 1936.

The repertoire they prepared for her included Waltz by Fritz Kreisler, The Dying Swan by Mikhail Fokine, the role of Nikiya from La Bayadère by Marius Petipa and Ludwig Minkus, the part of Anitra from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg and excerpts from Don Quixote to music by Minkus.

Her mixed marriage caused difficulties and the fear of reprisal, as it was typical for people in this period to be accused of spying.

As Shimizu was a diplomat specializing in Russia, he may have had some warning that the Great Purge was coming.

The couple began planning for a move to Japan and Pavlova gathered dance-related books, music, and costumes.

She spoke with the Japanese ambassador, who set up a meeting in Moscow with the industrialist Ichizō Kobayashi.

In September 1932, she returned to Leningrad where she lived with her husband, the choreographer of the Khabarovsk Regional Musical Comedy Theater, Leonid Romanovich Leonidov.

Theirs was an artistic union, and that year he staged The Red Poppy.

The marriage failed and Pavlova then married the Japanese diplomat, Takehisa Shimizu, taking the name Midori Shimizu.

On 13 December 1934, Pavlova moved to Moscow, where she lived at 42 Herzen Street, the location of the Japanese Embassy.

After agreeing to move to Japan in 1936, she developed classical ballet there, bringing with her theoretical and pedagogical materials to underpin her dance lessons and establish the field.

From 1936 until her retirement in 1957, Sapphire was employed by the Nihon Gekijō variety theater, in Tokyo, serving as its prima ballerina, choreographer and ballet instructor.

She performed classic Russian ballets, managing all aspects of the productions, as well as choreographing Japanese dances for stage and film.

She retired from the stage in 1953, but continued to be involved in ballet production until 1957.

In her later years, Sapphire wrote three books about ballet, which remain influential in Japan.