Anna Ludmila
During her eighth grade year of public school, in 1915, Jean got a chance not only to see Pavlova and her Imperial Russian Ballet perform, but to meet her idol.
The company performed at night, while during the day Pavlova was starring in a movie being filmed near Midway Gardens theatre, and Mabel Wentworth was granted permission to introduce a few of her students to the internationally renown ballerina.
Garden was a single and financially independent career woman, and she advised the young ballerina on important matters: from negotiating contracts; to what to wear to formal galas; to how to respond to the numerous marriage proposals she received from male admirers.
In 1920, Ludmila moved to New York City and danced in the Broadway musical Tip Top, starring the multi-talented Fred Stone.
She toured on the European ballroom circuit, dancing at famous resorts with partners trained in dance, and some who were not, such as the Frenchman and ex-boxer Georges Carpentier[8] In 1928, Ludmila was hired by Vaslav Nijinsky's sister, Bronislava Nijinska, as a soloist with a company founded by Ida Rubinstein, Les Ballets de Madame Rubinstein.
[11] Frederick Ashton picked her for the leading female role in Pomona,[12] a piece he premiered in the inaugural production that launched the Camargo Society.
Ludmila was dancing in a London revue when she caught the toe of her pointe shoe on a nail, snapping her Achilles tendon.
Unable to recover the strength in her right leg required for classical ballet, and not wanting to become infamous as a one-legged ballerina, she changed the focus of her professional career to ballroom dancing.
She partnered with the noted European ballroom dancer Georges Fontana and together they sailed to the United States to dance in a club in New York City.
On January 12, 1933, her birthday, she married a long time acquaintance, Jack "Jac" Broderick, who had studied with Oukrainsky and Pavley.
Towards the end of World War II she married Howard Gee, and when his job with an airline company took him to Peru, Ludmila, Jan, and her mother, Isabel, moved with him.
Margot Fonteyn, who had married the Panamanian diplomat, Roberto Arias, sought a coach in Panama City and she chose Ludmila.
When Howard retired from his civil service position the couple moved to the United States, first living in Harlingen, Texas, then in Eugene, Oregon.
At age sixty-eight, the Panama government awarded Ludmila, also known as Mrs. Jean Gee, the Order of Vasco Núñez de Balboa at a ceremony on November 15, 1971.
On April 23, 1990, Dame Margot Fonteyn attended the memorial service at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, College Station, Texas.
She remained after the service concluded, taking time to speak with Ludmila's students, many of whom were the same age as Jean when she met Pavlova.
