Leonide Massine and the ballet teacher Enrico Cecchetti with his class of dancers from Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. Lausanne, Switzerland, 1915.
Credit: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The Cecchetti Society was founded in 1922 to perpetuate the system of teaching established by the Italian dancer and ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1851-1928). Based in Russia for many years, Cecchetti was a virtuoso dancer, as well a celebrated mime artist. He became a key teacher for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The Cecchetti Society became affiliated to the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in 1924. Critic and historian Cyril Beaumont had a long association with the Society and was elected Chairman until his death in 1976. Cecchetti’s strict method of teaching was codified by Stanislas Idzikowski, Margaret Craske, Derra de Moroda and Beaumont, and to this day The Cecchetti Society ensures high standards of ballet teaching.
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