Cecchetti Enrico, *21 June 1850 Rome, †12 November 1928 Milan, Italian dancer, teacher and choreographer.
He was a student of G. Lepri at the Milan Academy of Dance; he made his debut in 1870 at La Scala. Between 1870 and 1887, he undertook artistic tours across Europe, performing in England, Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries, amongst others. From 1887 to 1902 he lived in St Petersburg working as a dancer; from 1887 to 1897 he was the second choreographer of the Imperial Ballet, and from 1892 to 1902 he was a teacher at the Imperial Ballet School [now Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet].
From 1902 to 1905, he was director of ballet and a ballet school in Warsaw. After a brief stay in Italy, he returned to St Petersburg, where he ran his own school from 1906 to 1910. From 1910 to 1918, he was the principal teacher at Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. From 1918 to 1923, he ran his own ballet school in London. From 1923 to 1928, he was director of the Milan Academy of Dance.
Cecchetti developed his own method of teaching classical dance, which, having been described and systematized by educators and theorists – mainly English – forms the basis of modern dance training. His pupils included all the most outstanding dancers of the first half of the 20th century. – A. Pavlova, T. Karsavina, N. de Valois, M. Fokine, L. Massine and V. Nijinsky.
Literature: O. Racster The Master of the Russian Ballet. The Memoirs of Cavaliere Enrico Cecchetti, London 1922; C.W Beaumont, S. Idzikowski A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing, London 1922; C.W. Beaumont Enrico Cecchetti, London 1929; C.W. Beaumont, M. Craske Theory and Practice of Allegro in Classical Ballet, London 1930.
