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Cecchetti methodEnrico Cecchetti, one of the
world's outstanding teachers of
ballet, established a system of
passing on the tradition of
ballet to future generations of
dancers. This system, the
Cecchetti method, was codified
and recorded by Cyril Beaumont,
Stanislas Idzikowski, Margaret
Craske and Derra de Moroda. The
method has a definite program
of strict routine and includes
a table of principal set daily
exercises for each day of the
week. The Cecchetti Society was
formed in London in 1922 to
perpetuate his method of
teaching. In 1924 the Society
was incorporated into the
Imperial Society of Teachers of
Dancing. Entrance to the
Society is by examination and
students must pass through a
carefully graded system which
has done much to raise the
standard of dancing and
teaching throughout the British
Empire.
French School The French School of ballet
began in the court ceremonies
of the French monarchs. Louis
XIV studied with the famous
ballet master Pierre Beauchamp
and established the first
academy of dancing, known as
the Académie Royale de
Musique et de Danse, in Paris
in 1661. The École de
Danse de l'Opéra was
founded in 1713 and is now
known as the École de
Danse du Théâtre
National de l'Opéra.
Among its most famous ballet
masters were Beauchamp,
Pécour, Lany, Noverre,
G. and A. Vestris, M. and P.
Gardel, F. Taglioni, Mazilier,
Saint-Léon,
Mérante, Staats, Aveline
and Lifar. The French School
was known for its elegance and
soft, graceful movements rather
than technical virtuosity. Its
influence spread throughout
Europe and is the basis of all
ballet
training.
Italian School The Imperial Dancing Academy
connected with La Scala in
Milan was opened in 1812. Its
greatest period began when
Carlo Blasis, Italian dancer
and teacher, became its
director in 1837. Blasis
published two textbooks,
Treatise on the Art of Dancing
and Code of Terpischore, in
which he codified his teaching
methods and all that was known
of ballet technique. These
books form the basis of our
modern classical training.
Blasis trained most of the
famous Italian dancers ot the
era, and his pupil Giovanni
Lepri was the teacher of Enrico
Cecchetti, one of the greatest
teachers in the history of
ballet. It was Cecchetti who
brought the Italian School to
its peak. The Italian School
was known for its strong,
brilliant technique and the
virtuosity of its dancers, who
astonished the audience with
their difficult steps and
brilliant
turns.
Methods (French: Méthodes [may-TAWD]) Academic ballet as we know it
today came into being in the
year 1661, when King Louis XIV
of France founded the
Académie Royale de
Musique et de Danse. Although
individual Milanese
dancing-masters had been
renowned since the fifteenth
century, the permanent
Imperial Dancing Academy
connected with La Scala
Theatre was not opened until
1812. The Academy at Milan
influenced Paris and
especially Russia through the
rules of education drawn up by
Carlo Blasis, who became
director of the Academy in
1837 and rapidly made it the
centre of ballet
activity.
By the middle of the
nineteenth century the ballet
centres of the world had
shifted from Paris and Milan
to St. Petersburg and Moscow.
The Russian School first
derived its technique from
France but by the middle of
the nineteenth century it had
acquired an international
aspect through the influence
of international artists. From
the beginning of the second
half of the nineteenth century
Russian ballet was dominated
by Marius Petipa, a Frenchman,
and Christian Johannsen, a
Swede. Then in 1874 Enrico
Cecchetti, the last great
exponent of the Italian
School, arrived in Russia.
These three men working on
generations of Russian dancers
developed Russian ballet,
making it as much a system as
Italian or French ballet.
Actually the French method is
in the greatest proportion in
the Russian
School.
Russian School The Russian School was founded
in St. Petersburg in 1738 by
the French dancerJean-Baptiste
Landé. The French
influence continued under such
great teachers as Charles Le
Picq, Charles Didelot,
Christian Johanssen, Jules
Perrot, Arthur
Saint-Léon and Marius
Petipa.
In 1885 Virginia Zucchi, a
famous Italian ballerina,
appeared in St. Petersburg and
created a sensation with her
forceful and brilliant Italian
technique which differed from
the soft, graceful elegance of
the French technique prevalent
in Russia until then. Other
Italian dancers such as Enrico
Cecchetti arrived in Russia
and continued to astound the
Russians with their amazing
dexterity, brilliant
pirouettes, tours and
fouettés. The Russian
dancers rapidly absorbed
everything the Italians had to
teach and incorporated it into
the Russian system. Thus, the
Russian School of Ballet is a
development of the French and
Italian
Schools.
During the 1 920s the Russian
ballerina and teacher
Agrippina Vaganova developed a
planned instructional system
which later became known to
the whole world as the
Vaganova system. This svstem
has become the basic method of
the entire Soviet
choreographic
school. |