 Inspired by swans that she had seen in public parks and Alfred , Lord Tennyson 's poem " The Dying Swan " , Anna Pavlova ( who had just become a ballerina at the Mariinsky Theatre ) asked Michel Fokine to create a solo for her for a 1905 concert being given by artists from the chorus of the Imperial Mariinsky Opera . Fokine suggested Saint @-@ Saëns 's cello solo , Le Cygne ( which Fokine had been playing at home on a mandolin to a friend 's piano accompaniment ) and Pavlova agreed . A rehearsal was arranged and the short dance completed very quickly . Fokine remarked in Dance Magazine ( August 1931 ) : 
