Considered the most expressively gifted ballerina of her generation, Russian dancer Anna Pavlova introduced ballet to a world audience through 23 years of nearly constant touring. Pavlova’s talent resided in her ability to convey subjective and emotional experience through conventional ballet material, rather than in avant-garde experimentation. While the themes of her ballets pegged her as a traditionalist, Pavlova’s career mirrored forward-thinking trends in dance through her embrace of a freer style, her commitment to popularising ballet worldwide and her experiments with dances from other cultures.