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Ana Pavlović, Artistic Director of the Ballet of the National Theatre

I Didn’t Dare Miss a Moment

She had a successful ballet career as a dancer, performing her last role – that of Giselle – at the age of 46. Having spent the last three years heading the largest ballet company in the region, she is today very keen to improve cooperation between the ballet centres of the region

José Martínez, director of the Paris Opera Ballet, was a guest of Serbia’s National Theatre Ballet in mid-January 2025. This world-renowned artist reached agreement with the management of the National Theatre in Belgrade to stage in the Serbian capital the Ludwig Minkus ballet Don Quixote, one of the most famous works of classical ballet literature, based on Miguel de Cervantes’ eponymous novel. The premiere performance is planned to take place on the great stage in mid-May, with the show set to include the participation of the entire ensemble of the Ballet and Orchestra of the National Theatre in Belgrade.

This kind of news would be a source of pride for any national theatre in the world. And the person who deserves the most credit for it, Ana Pavlović, artistic director of the National Theatre Ballet, who initially invited Martínez, says that it represents the success of the entire team with which she works, of the administration of the National Theatre. Singling out the work of the executive director of the Ballet, Smiljana Stokić, she adds: “I really don’t know how it happened that, after less than three years of this management team’s work, we landed such a great artist. He will be doing the version of Don Quixote that he did in Madrid, with his own team, and we will have two months filled with work that we’re looking forward to in advance.”

It is worth knowing that Ana met Martinez long ago, when they performed together as young dancers at a gala concert in Novi Sad. He once gave a guest performance in Swan Lake at the Sava Centre, but his arrival now – as a choreographer and the top man of French ballet – is particularly significant. Even more so given that, after familiarising himself with the Belgrade Ballet, he expressed great satisfaction at seeing that it has “great potential”.

Photo by Nebojša Babić

Who is Ana Pavlović (1973), a former principal dancer of the National Theatre Ballet who has spent the past three years as the head of this ensemble, and who has a bright past, a successful present and an auspicious future? Her family roots have been in Belgrade for several generations. The family home of her father Miodrag, in Belgrade’s Professors’ Colony neighbourhood, where she was born and still lives to this day, is part of that Belgrade pedigree. The eldest of three daughters, her sisters Nevena and Jelena are both doctors. She was already 17 when her youngest sister was born, and she says in jest that they are like a true Sicilian family, where everything happens in the kitchen. “We are very noisy and all take care of each other. I now also have a daughter, Nina, so she also attends the family sessions, which are always held at mum’s place, in the kitchen.”

Ana’s mother, Mara, hails originally from the outskirts of Kruševac, and as a child Ana loved visiting her grandparents in the countryside.

“I had a pleasant combination of the city and the countryside in my upbringing and the way I was raised, which contributed to me becoming a very vibrant personality. My parents instilled a proper measure of values in me, raising me to always give my all, to be responsible and professional, and I tried to give my all and do my best. I never lulled myself into believing that what I do is perfect, or that I’m the best. Even when others said that I was one of the best in the class, I never let that lead me. I was always seeking the road to perfection, which naturally doesn’t exist.”

I went to Graz in 1991 via Maribor and returned to Belgrade via Hungary. The disintegration of Yugoslavia had happened

She changed primary schools three times, because she always had to attend the early classes, as she attended ballet in the afternoons. And she actually choose to attend ballet classes because of the music, as she’d wanted to deal with singing.

“My maternal grandfather had an absolutely wonderful ear, sang very well and played the accordion, and I saw myself in that field, playing the piano and singing. However, the summer when I was meant to enrol in music school, we returned late from our summer holidays and all the auditions had been completed. I was despairing, and my mum called all the art schools to see what she could do for me, to improve my mood. And a place appeared at a ballet school, which at that time had piano as a subject! That’s how I went to ballet school because of the piano!”

She quickly discovered that ballet isn’t about luxurious dresses, tutus, tiaras… It’s about hours and hours of practice, and for her, as someone who is hyperactive, that meant her being bored.

“I’d wanted to leave the school already two or three times during the first year, but my mother didn’t let me. And then, after that first year, something happened in me; that was love, passion, I would even say fanaticism, and there was no chance that anyone would be able to separate me from ballet. I’ve been saying ever since then that a profession, especially an artistic one, finds you, as opposed to you finding it.”

Her parents weren’t satisfied with her choice, as it is a profession with a short duration and injuries happen, but she has remained convinced to this day that she made the correct and the best choice. She, of course, always had their support, but her mum watched her daughter from the third gallery throughout her entire career! Explaining that fleeing from the first rows and the parterre boxes, she said that it was easier for her to watch the magic of dance from a distance! As a graduate of the class of prima ballerina Ivanka Lukateli, she received her first role in the Ballet of the National Theatre that was then being headed by Lidija Pilipenko. As soon as she graduated from the Lujo Davičo Ballet Secondary School, she signed up for an audition and left for Graz (Austria). She was still a minor at the time, so she was accompanied on the journey by her aunt Olivera, her father’s sister, who was a professor at the Faculty of Technology. She was by her side from the very beginning, not missing even one of Ana’s performances.

Photo by Željko Jovanović

“I applied and was immediately accepted at the Opera in Graz. I thought that I should start at a smaller company, not at a big one where I would traumatise myself, and Graz was also close to home. Unfortunately, that was 1991. I went to Graz via Maribor and returned to Belgrade via Hungary. The disintegration of Yugoslavia had happened, and I survived everything that we endured during the two years that I was in Graz. My country’s image abroad during those years was very poor. I didn’t have any problems at the theatre, but all the circumstances worsened. I was young and had come to another country from a big family in which we all supported one another, and then something happened in my country that brought us all into disrepute. I know that it isn’t easy for our children when they go abroad, but it was also essential in my case, because my profession actually demands that you start working as soon as possible. I viewed that period as a good experience and an opportunity to learn something new, and that was the kind of neoclassical repertoire that then didn’t exist here. I returned to Belgrade in 1993, at the worst time. Young people were leaving en masse and I came back, and I don’t regret that I did. I had some nice guest performances abroad later too, but I always returned to Belgrade.”

Upon returning from Graz, she was accepted into the Ballet of the National Theatre and embarked on a path that implied initially dancing exclusively in the ensemble, which she sometimes found very difficult to handle. However, she conducted herself professionally and didn’t argue or refuse. And when Vladimir Logunov did Sleeping Beauty a few years later, she wasn’t in the selection. In the ballet at that time was a teacher from Kiev, Robert Klyavin, who approached Ana and asked her if she would like to work in that show.

“I said that I would, but I wasn’t sure whether I could. He claimed that I could and I must, saying: ‘Listen, Ana, if you don’t do this now, then you’re a criminal. God gave you a talent, and you wasted it, you took it and didn’t give anything back’. He was a wonderful pedagogue and a great psychologist, who understood that I feared a major task and uttered a sentence that I have always remembered. That’s how I began, and in the end me and my partner, Denis Kasatkin, danced the first repeat performance! And that’s where everything started to unravel. I’ve had ups and downs since then, and all that makes an artist strong and able to handle challenges, to mature and grow as an artist.”

After that exceptionally successful debut, misfortune struck in the form of a tumour on the leg that turned out to be benign. But she survived a difficult operation, after which it was unknown whether she would be able to continue with her career.

It’s difficult after a great career, during which you’re in the focus as an artist, to stand in front of 110 dancers and place yourself in the shadow, but in the service of all of them

“I think that situation compelled me to forever set a system and a measure of values, to realise that there isn’t much time if you want to do something. You have to do everything immediately and mustn’t let a moment pass you by. That’s when I charted my pathway, if I can put it like that. I received a lot of help from Ivanka Lukateli and Lidija Pilipenko with their understanding. And I’ve only advanced since then. I think I cured myself through work. If I’m not feeling well, if something bad happens to me, I head to the dance hall, which we call the temple, and I practice, I work on myself. The road to the goal has always brought me joy in this work. I have been fortunate to be able, as Klyavin says, to give something back to the good teachers from whom I learnt a lot.”

She received the rank of first soloist in 1998 and was promoted to principal dancer the following year, in 1999.

It was in the 2008-2009 season that she received the Dimitrije Parlić Award for extremely successful artistic and technical interpretation, while she is also a recipient of numerous other awards. However, she is particularly proud of the fact that she participated in the prestigious September 2009 gala festival ‘Stars of the 21st Century’, at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

“When I first performed the role of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, which was a really huge success, I was called by famous ballerina [and a former predecessor in her current position] Lidija Pilipenko (1938-2020), who said: “Ana, remember one thing forever. After this great success, you know, everything you do will be forgiven, with the exception of success!” She told me that at the right time, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be successful. And whenever some hullabaloo was raised about something I was doing, I knew that I was on the right track.”

When you start dancing ballet at the age of nine and never stop, as is the case in Ana’s life, you don’t have time to think about anything other than not taking a break and not getting injured. You live from premiere to premiere, from show to show.

“I had the good fortune to dance until the age of 46, which isn’t common in our business. That was quite a long time for such difficult and physically demanding roles that I performed. Somewhere towards the end of my career, I realised that I had to prepare myself to depart from the stage. Because it’s like a part of you dies when you stop dancing. You get up one morning and nothing matters anymore – neither the fact that you’ve been doing it since you were nine, nor whether your leg hurts, nor whether you’re going to get injured… There’s simply no longer a stage, which is everything to an artist – both agony and catharsis. And now you have to continue living with it, or rather without it. I stopped dancing during the time of the covid pandemic, and very quickbers ly afterwards I was called by Mr Goncić, who offered me the position of director of the Ballet. It was such that I didn’t even have time to consider what I would do in my retirement.”

She didn’t have any kind of formal farewell performance, but she remembers that her last time on the stage of the National Theatre was playing Giselle in the eponymous ballet, and that everything was somehow solemn and strange. It was a packed hall and many of her colleagues attended the show, and she danced as if floating. And everyone approached her at the end, congratulating her and expressing wonder at how it was possible that she danced so well when she was almost 46 years old!

Ana emerged as a ballerina during the tough times of the 1990s, when she would constantly hear about the “golden age” of the Belgrade ballet, which was already history before she was even born. She nurtures great respect for all those names that have marked the 100-year history of the Belgrade Ballet, some of whom she knew and some of whom she worked with.

“I admire many of them and strived to give me all not only to promote myself, but rather also to preserve that shining tradition of our Ballet, with us having celebrated its centennial in March 2023. It’s difficult after a great career, during which you’re in the focus as an artist, to stand in front of 110 dancers and place yourself in the shadow, but in the service of all of them. I’m aware that every period has its own heroes, which is why I try to do everything in my power to ensure that the Ballet doesn’t wither or give up on major tasks and challenges. No matter how hard the times are.”

Whenever some hullabaloo was raised about something I was doing, I knew that I was on the right track

Ana performed many shows of the classical repertoire for 17 or 18 years, but the absolute record holder when it comes to contemporary shows is the ballet Who’s Singin’ Over There, to the music of Vojislav Voki Kostić (1931-2010) and with the phenomenal choreography of Zagreb-based guest choreographer Staša Zurovac. It has been performed for a full 20 years. And Ana was even in the lineup for the premiere performance.

“I danced in the role of Mlada, but not too often, because it is a modern ballet and I was always in the classical repertoire more. But today, at the helm of the Ballet company, I try to achieve the required and best harmony between the traditional, classical form of ballet and contemporary tendencies in this branch of the arts. Over these three years, we have renewed the ensemble with around twenty dancers, and in December we had nine performances in two weeks of our favourite show, The Nutcracker, tickets for which sold out in just a few hours.”

As artistic director of the Ballet, she is very proud of the regional cooperation that she’s achieved over recent years. They performed Who’s Singin’ Over There at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb and received a standing ovation. She believes that the image of the importance of the “golden age of the Belgrade ballet” would be unimaginable without joint projects and constant guest performances on the stages of the former Yugoslavia.

“I’m very happy that last season, on St. Valentine’s Day, or St. Tryphon’s Day, we held a ballet evening that included the participation of one couple from each of the national hous es of the former Yugoslav republics. That was a magnificent concert that I hope we will repeat on the stage of our National Theatre on 8th March this year. I’m also proud that we, as a ballet company, have signed a memorandum with the Lujo Davičo ballet school from Belgrade and the Dimitrije Parlić ballet school from Pančevo. This means that their students will participate in our ballets as and when needed, and the best among them will be employed at our house tomorrow. My desire is for us to create such conditions that these young artists would want to stay here, and not to head abroad. On the other hand, I’m satisfied that young dancers are coming to us from very good companies and very good schools world-wide because we have a deficit when it comes to men. We have Russians, Ukrainians, three Japanese dancers, Italians, Australians et al. They are interested in the repertoire that’s both classical and neoclassical, which provides them with the opportunity to train and mature well.”

This artist is known as a director who follows every show, monitors every dancer and tries to give everyone a chance, to encourage them to do the best that they can.

Ana returned to dancing after giving birth when her daughter Nina was just six months old. That daughter is today a third-year student at the Faculty of Biology. She likes the theatre and sometimes works there as an usher, but she is far from any thought of dealing with the arts. Ana’s husband, Dušan Pešić, is a technology expert. She says that, without his support and understanding, she wouldn’t have achieved everything that she is today proud of and to which she has dedicated, and continues to dedicate, a large part of her life.