Legend Retold

The most legendary figures are often the most misunderstood—reshaped over time into something that merely evokes the original rather than really resembling it. In gaining a greater sense of permanence, they lose some key context or truth. With her Anna Pavlova-inspired work for the forthcoming production “Legendary Women,” Isabelle Fokine, granddaughter of the iconic Michel Fokine, aims to correct the record.

Performance

“Legendary Women” preview, choreographed by Isabelle Fokine, performed by Chloe Misseldine

Place

Martha Graham Studios, New York, NY, October 6, 2026

Words

Rebecca Deczynski

Chloe Misseldine rehearsing for “Legendary Women” choreographed by Isabelle Fokine. Photograph courtesy of the artists

“Legendary Women” is a project by the Ballet Support Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Lola Abigail Koch, which aims to support professional and emerging dancers and choreographers with paid performance opportunities. The production, which will debut in full in March, will include 11 short ballets by female choreographers, focused on the lives of influential women, including Pavlova, Isadora Duncan, Maria Callas, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.

American Ballet Theatre principal Chloe Misseldine is a vision as Pavlova, even in a rehearsal tutu. Fokine gives some stage directions as context: Misseldine carries two prop suitcases, though we are to imagine her wearing a long, white cape.

In the first movement of the two-part piece, Misseldine evokes Pavlova’s worldwide travels. She starts in B-plus, looking away from the meager in-studio audience before she bourées backward, raising the suitcases, then moves back in a series of piqué turns and piqué attitudes. She throws in doubles with ease.

Chloe Misseldine rehearsing for “Legendary Women” choreographed by Isabelle Fokine. Photograph courtesy of the artists

Fokine’s choreography is intent on storytelling, and Misseldine has the expressions for it: she’s dreamy-eyed when she looks out to the audience, draws a graceful hand to her face, and moves into a cheeky mazurka. She also has the range for Fokine’s rich references to Pavlova’s most iconic roles, including Giselle, Columbine, and the Sylph in “La Sylphide.” These are bite-sized tastes: a développé à la seconde is immediately identifiable from Giselle’s act II variation, but we only spend a few seconds with this character. It is to Fokine’s credit that these disparate steps flow so well together without looking cut and pasted in collage.

Still, this first part is but an appetizer to the main course as Misseldine removes her yet-invisible cape to perform, in full, Michel Fokine’s original choreography of “The Dying Swan.”

It was only in watching this performance that I learned I didn’t know “The Dying Swan” after all. Most versions performed today, Fokine explained after the performance, are based on the version performed by the late Bolshoi ballerina Maya Plisetskaya who, under the instruction of her aunt Sulamith Messerer, took great liberties with the choreography. The result is that today, most dancers perform “The Dying Swan” as if it were a variation in “Swan Lake”—the emphasis is on the undulating arm movements and a sense of avian regality.

This, Fokine says, misses the point entirely. It is not a dance about a swan. It is a dance about death and the fear of dying.

Chloe Misseldine rehearsing with Isabelle Fokine for “Legendary Women.” Photograph courtesy of the artists

Misseldine bourrées to the center stage facing forward and raises her arms up as if in surrender. When she goes down onto a knee, she bends back with a deep stretch. Through the course of the variation, her energy ebbs and flows—at times, she has a surge of energy before she’s pulled back into the course of movement. When she looks under an arm (or a wing), she displays a heartbreaking bashfulness. The most beautiful moment in the piece is a bourrée straight forward with her back to the audience; she raises her arms and arches her torso, lifting her throat to the ceiling.

Fokine’s choreography is simple, yet effective—reliant more on small mannerisms than sweeping climaxes of movement. There are some moments of intentional awkwardness; after the performance, Fokine works with Misseldine on getting the alignment of a raised shoulder just right. It’s a posture you’d see more in a shy child than a prima ballerina. That is entirely the point.

This is what Fokine’s grandfather envisioned, back when he first improvised the solo in the studio with Pavlova in 1905. It’s a work replete with self-soothing and denial, followed, ultimately, by acceptance; the story is not a fantasy or fairy tale, but something universal.

Misseldine had just six rehearsals to get it right—this open preview being the sixth. For a young dancer already so revered for her gorgeous lines and sharp technique, this slower pace gives her the opportunity to push deeper as an artist. It’s thrilling to watch the past meet the present, this time, with preservation as a priority.

Rebecca Deczynski

Rebecca Deczynski is a New York City-based writer and editor publishes the newsletter Mezzanine Society. Her work has appeared in publications including Inc., Domino, NYLON, and InStyle. She graduated from Barnard College cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in dance.

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Legend Retold

Rebecca Deczynski

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