Maestro Enrico Cecchetti and Diaghilevs

Dance Chronicle
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Maestro: Enrico Cecchetti and Diaghilev's Ballets

Russes
Melonie Buchanan Murray
To cite this article: Melonie Buchanan Murray (2017) Maestro: Enrico Cecchetti and Diaghilev's
Ballets Russes, Dance Chronicle, 40:2, 165-191, DOI: 10.1080/01472526.2017.1320744
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DANCE CHRONICLE
2017, VOL. 40, NO. 2, 165–191
https://doi.org/10.1080/01472526.2017.1320744
Maestro: Enrico Cecchetti and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

Melonie Buchanan Murray
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
With a few notable exceptions, the literature in ballet history Cecchetti; Ballets Russes;
generally discusses Enrico Cecchetti solely as a ballet teacher, Diaghilev
ignoring his contributions as a performer, and even as a ballet
master, to ballet history. During his affiliation with Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes from 1911 until 1928, Cecchetti played a significant role, as a
performer and a teacher, in the development of Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes along three trajectories: as a virtuosic dancer who raised the
Downloaded by [University of Utah] at 15:01 07 August 2017
standard for male dancing, as an exceptional mime artist who

inspired choreographers and dancers alike, and as a ballet master
who created a solid corps de ballet from a group of dancers with
diverse training and backgrounds.
Most ballet historians consider the contributions of Enrico Cecchetti (1850–1928)

solely through his role as a teacher of ballet technique (Figure 1). Owing largely to
the 1922 publication and subsequent reprinting of the Cecchetti manual, and its
wide and enduring dissemination, Cecchetti’s reputation as a ballet teacher over-
shadows his other contributions to the history of ballet.1 Most dance history text-
books mention Cecchetti only briefly, acknowledging his gifts as a pedagogue, but
omitting additional details about his broader impact on ballet.y In terms of recent
scholarly literature, aside from Giannandrea Poesio’s writings,2 a small body of
essays focusing on the maestro exists. My own research focuses on Cecchetti’s sig-
nificant influence, as both a performer and a teacher, on Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
At the height of his career as a dancer, which lasted from approximately 1870 to
1890, Cecchetti achieved renown as a virtuoso performer whose technical innova-
tions greatly influenced the succeeding generation of male dancers—particularly
the ones who performed and choreographed for Diaghilev’s company. As a mime
artist, both at the Maryinsky and also during his tenure with the Ballets Russes,
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/ldnc.

See Cyril W. Beaumont and Stanislas Idzikowski, The Cecchetti Method of Classical Ballet: Theory and Technique (Mine-
ola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003). Assisted by dancer Stanislas Idzikowski and Cecchetti himself, Beaumont wrote
this text, often referred to as the “Cecchetti manual.” The Dover edition is an unabridged reprint of the work origi-
nally published as A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing (London: C. W. Beaumont,
1932), itself a new and revised edition of the work originally published in 1922.
y
For example, Jack Anderson mentions Cecchetti only as an Italian teacher working for the Imperial Russian Ballet.
Jack Anderson, Ballet & Modern Dance: A Concise History (Princeton, NJ: Dance Horizons, 1992), 108. Joan Cass
acknowledges Cecchetti as a performer, but states that he became famous as a teacher. Joan Cass, Dancing through
History (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993), 133, 149, 179. Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp make note of Cec-
chetti’s gifts as a mime and performer, but still discuss him primarily as a teacher. Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp,
Ballet: An Illustrated History (New York: Universe Books, 1973), 50, 96, 98, 117, 121, 124, 130, 147, 164, 226.
© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
166 M. B. MURRAY
Figure 1. Lithograph of Enrico Cecchetti by artist Randolph Schwabe. Issue date 1922. Courtesy of
the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. “Maestro Cav. Enrico Cecchetti”
New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-7125-
a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 (accessed April 4, 2017).
Cecchetti adapted the conventions of codified ballet mime, bringing his roles to life
through a more organic method of character depiction and inspiring
Diaghilev’s choreographers to create vivid mime characters. Furthermore, Cecchet-
ti’s offstage persona and his relationship with Diaghilev had an intangible impact
on the company.
Following a significant performance career in Italy, Cecchetti joined the Russian
Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg as principal dancer in 1887. Later that year he was
appointed second ballet master and became a teacher at the Imperial School in
1892.3 From then until 1911, aside from a brief sojourn to teach in Warsaw,
Cecchetti spent most of his time in Russia, teaching either privately or for the
Imperial Ballet. In 1911, Cecchetti joined the Ballets Russes as ballet master and
principal mime, and he maintained close ties with the company until his death in

Poesio remarks that, even after Cecchetti left the company, he remained a “living inspiration” for Diaghilev’s dancers.
See Giannandrea Poesio, “A Man for All Seasons: Enrico Cecchetti and the Ballets Russes,” Experiment, vol. 17, no. 1
(2011): 242.
DANCE CHRONICLE 167
1928. Despite the fact that Cecchetti was associated with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes
for a significant portion of its history, biographical and historical texts on
Diaghilev and his company generally mention Cecchetti only in passing.
According to Russian ballet historian Tim Scholl, dance historians have had
difficulty piecing together details about Cecchetti for several reasons. First,
Cecchetti’s status as a visiting artist in Russia meant that he was not entirely a part
of the Imperial Ballet’s bureaucratic system. Thus, relatively few traces of the Ital-
ian dancer and ballet master exist in the Russian ballet’s archival record. Although
information included in such archives primarily refers to day-to-day business
operations, which are not crucial to this study, “their absence leaves less room for
nuance and makes Cecchetti something of an aberration.”4 Pertaining to Cecchet-
ti’s career in Italy, Poesio remarks that, after 1861 “the offices and the archives of
the newly unified Italian kingdom were more concerned with the nascent political
establishment than with the recording of theatrical matters.”5 An additional ques-
tion that surrounds Cecchetti is one of emploi during his time in Russia. Scholl
refers to the Russian notion of emploi as “a circumscribed range of roles” assigned
to each rank of dancers;6 he clarifies this description by adding that, while “the
concept may seem rather dated to us now, as it was invalidated by many dancers
of the twentieth century, in Cecchetti’s time it remained vitally important in cast-
ing.”7 However, because Cecchetti was not consistently cast in a specific type of
role during his tenure in Russia, his status of emploi remains difficult to pin down.
Our relatively poor knowledge of Cecchetti and his career may stem partially from
these issues.
My essay attempts to create a richer picture of Cecchetti and his significance as a
historical figure by considering recent scholarship on the maestro, the Russian bal-
let, and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, in addition to anecdotal material and personal
recollections from autobiographies and oral history interviews. In contrast to the
shortage of references to Cecchetti in ballet history texts, the dancers and artists
who worked with him on a daily basis often wrote and spoke about him with nos-
talgia, humor, and reverence in autobiographies and interviews. Those who knew
Cecchetti offer recollections and anecdotes that often include descriptive memories
of the maestro as a performer and a teacher as well as vibrant accounts of his
gregarious personality; they help to create a distinctive portrait.
According to oral historian Alistair Thomson, while critics of first-person
accounts argue that memories may be distorted over time, tainted by bias, and
influenced by “collective and retrospective versions of the past,” nonetheless, the
subjectivity of memory provides important clues about historical experience and
the relationship between individual and collective memory.8 Admittedly, as Scholl
points out, the memoirs and historiographies created by British enthusiasts

I refer to texts focusing on Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: Richard Buckle, Diaghilev (New York: Atheneum, 1979); Lynn
Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (New York: Da Capo Press, 2009); and Sjeng Scheijen, Diaghilev: A Life (London:
Profile Books, 2010).
168 M. B. MURRAY
attempting to form “their own notions of the epistemology of the Russian ballet,”
including Cecchetti’s role within it, show little if any personal knowledge of the
Italian and Russian traditions that played a central role in his development as an
artist and pedagogue.9 However, although the accuracy of historical fact and cir-
cumstance found within these memoirs and early historiographies—specifically
the texts published in the 1920s—might be unreliable, the sources still offer valu-
able insight into Cecchetti’s personality and character. This is true particularly
when multiple sources relate similar stories, experiences, and sentiments. For the
purposes of this essay, the relevance of the recollections of those who interacted
with Cecchetti and witnessed his performances outweighs the informants’ possible
lapses in exact dates or precise genealogies.
Two essential resources for this project are books about Cecchetti published in
the 1920s. First, Olga Racster’s The Master of the Russian Ballet was published in
1923, five years prior to Cecchetti’s death.10 In the prologue, Racster states that she
interviewed Cecchetti at his home on multiple occasions. Racster’s book includes

many firsthand stories from Cecchetti’s life that, while prone to embellishment—
likely by both interviewee and interviewer—were probably transmitted directly
from Cecchetti to Racster.11 Second, Cyril Beaumont’s Enrico Cecchetti: A Memoir,
published in 1929, a year after Cecchetti’s death, lends the insight of an aficionado
who knew the maestro personally and worked with him for many years.12
Throughout the early twentieth century, Beaumont wrote prolifically about
Cecchetti and also about Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. A founding member of the
Cecchetti Society, Beaumont is credited as an author of the Cecchetti manual.
Materials housed in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and
recorded as part of the Oral History Project, specifically transcripts and sound
recordings of interviews with those who worked with Cecchetti, provide multiple
anecdotes about the maestro. The collection includes interviews with Vincenzo
Celli, Muriel Stuart, Alicia Markova, Friderica Derra de Moroda, Serge Lifar, and
even a lengthy interview with Beaumont. These oral histories offer firsthand
accounts and personal memories that provide glimpses of Cecchetti’s personality.
Texts by Lynn Garafola and Richard Buckle provide extensive information
pertaining to Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes, while autobiographies and memoirs
written by dancers, composers, and designers involved with Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes yield particular insight. In The Diaghilev Ballet 1909–1929, Serge Grigoriev,
who acted as the company’s regisseur until Diaghilev’s death, relates several first-
hand accounts illustrating Cecchetti’s involvement in the company’s daily life.
Meanwhile, dancers and choreographers Alexandra Danilova, Tamara Karsavina,
Mathilde Kschessinska, Leonide Massine, Bronislava Nijinska, Lydia Sokolova, and

After completing the Cecchetti manual, Beaumont decided it would be beneficial to bring together those dancers in
London who had studied with Cecchetti. From this group was founded the Cecchetti Society in 1922. Its earliest
membership comprised Beaumont, Margaret Craske, Friderica Derra de Moroda, Molly Lake, Jane Forrestier, Marie
Rambert, and Ninette de Valois. Cecchetti and his wife acted as the first president and vice president of the Cecchetti
Society. See Cyril William Beaumont, Enrico Cecchetti: A Memoir (London: C. W. Beaumont, 1929), 37–38.
DANCE CHRONICLE 169
Lifar relate numerous anecdotes and memories of Cecchetti on- and offstage.
Nicolas Legat’s memoirs permit insight into Cecchetti’s career with the Russian
Imperial Ballet. More recently, academically rigorous historical research by Poesio
(see above) offers the most comprehensive contemporary literature concerning
Cecchetti’s life, work, and influence, particularly with regard to his work as a mime
artist and his relationship to Diaghilev.13
Cecchetti’s life prior to joining Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

Born, quite appropriately, in a theater dressing room, Cecchetti spent most of his
childhood in the backstage areas of theaters. His parents, Cesare and Serafina Cec-
chetti, both itinerant dancers, raised three children who all became dancers.14 By
the time Enrico turned fourteen his parents had given up their hopes of his com-
pleting a formal education, as it seemed he would rather practice pirouettes than
do school work.15
At the age of fourteen, Cecchetti began studying with the famous teacher Gio-
vanni Lepri, who had been a pupil of the legendary Italian ballet pedagogue, Carlo
Blasis. In the late nineteenth century, a La Scala debut was of vital importance to
the careers of Italian dancers and, as Racster tells the story, at the age of twenty Cec-
chetti actually fell down twice during his.16 This debacle could have easily ended his
career had he not executed an astonishing thirty-two grand pirouettes in his final
variation.17 As this feat had probably never before been seen on the La Scala stage,
nor anywhere else, La Scala’s discriminating audience pardoned Cecchetti’s earlier
mishaps, and his successful debut at La Scala sealed his fate as premier danseur.18
Cecchetti went on to successfully perform in London, Italy, Holland, Norway,
Germany, Austria, and Russia. Since his innovations as a virtuoso dancer became a
trademark of his performing career, I would posit that Cecchetti’s extensive tour-
ing contributed to the elevated technical proficiency of male dancing in Europe at
the time. Although Cecchetti was not the only Italian male dancer known for his
technical feats,19 the influence of his virtuosic tendencies on the Russian ballet,
and subsequently on Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, warrants deeper discussion.
In the summer of 1887, Cecchetti and his younger brother, Giuseppe, assembled
a troupe of Italian dancers to perform in St. Petersburg at the Arcadia Theatre. The
high audience attendance, a result of the Imperial Theatre’s summer off-season,
supported the success of the Italians and their overwhelmingly positive reception.
According to ballet historian Arnold Haskell, the “great technical prowess of the
Italians came as a surprise to a public used to the grace of the French School.”20
Many dancers from the Maryinsky Theatre attended these concerts to see the
renowned Italian technique and virtuosity for themselves, and Racster writes that
even the Imperial Theatre’s director, General Sevelovski, and the eminent ballet
master, Marius Petipa, attended.21 The Italian dancers became the toast of St.
Petersburg with Cecchetti as their star, astounding the Russian audiences by
executing eight consecutive revolutions in his pirouettes when the stars of the
170 M. B. MURRAY
Maryinsky could accomplish only four. At the end of this triumphant season,
Cecchetti accepted a position as premier danseur at the Maryinsky.22
On November 4, 1887, Cecchetti made his debut at the Maryinsky dancing the
lead role in The Tulip of Harlem. His elegant partnering in this “purely classical
ballet” proved to the Russians that Cecchetti was not only a virtuoso, but also an
accomplished classical dancer.23 Although Cecchetti danced many leading roles at
the Maryinsky, his interpretations of the Bluebird and Carabosse, roles that he
originated in Petipa’s 1890 The Sleeping Beauty, illustrate two of his strengths as a
performer: his virtuosic dancing and his mimetic gifts. After playing the role of the
hunched, wicked fairy Carabosse in the first act, Cecchetti reappeared in the last
act as the virtuosic Bluebird, a role still considered one of the most technically diffi-
cult male variations in classical ballet. Some, like Lifar, believe that Cecchetti actu-
ally choreographed this variation himself.24 Poesio notes that, although no proof
to support Lifar’s argument has surfaced, Cecchetti did perform a role with similar
choreographic features in 1872 in a ballet choreographed by his father.25 The Blue-

bird male variation, although brief, is filled with double cabrioles, entrechat six,
brises voles, and double tours en l’air, exemplifying male virtuosity in classical bal-
let. Alexandre Benois, who later became a designer for Diaghilev’s company and
an important figure in his circle, wrote in his memoirs, “How wonderful it was
when in the last act, the same artist, who had just been so ingenious a grotesque,
suddenly appeared in the beautiful dance of the Bluebird … . He amazed and
enchanted the Russian public with his extraordinary softness and grace, perform-
ing intricate entrechats and pirouettes as yet inaccessible to Russian artists.”26
In 1890, after twelve years of performing with the Russian Imperial Ballet, Cecchetti
accepted the position of professor for the Imperial Theatre School. Legat, a student at
the Imperial Theatre School during this time, wrote that dancers “flocked” to Cecchet-
ti’s classes to learn the Italian technique,27 and so, little by little, traits of the Italian
school permeated the Russian ballet. That said, the notion of a coherent Italian system
of ballet training during this period is debatable. Ballet historian Jessica Zeller notes
that Italian ballet training at this time tended toward regional variety rather than a
coherent national identity.28 Additionally, Cecchetti was not the first, nor the only, Ital-
ian to influence the Imperial Russian Ballet. Throughout the late nineteenth century,
the Imperial Ballet invited Italian ballerinas as guest artists to perform principal roles at
the Maryinsky. Artists such as Virginia Zucchi, Pierina Legnani, and Carlotta Brianza
dazzled St. Petersburg with their skillful technique and steel-toe pointe work.29
However, Cecchetti introduced the Italian school’s male virtuosity to the Maryinsky.
Nonetheless, during this era the Russian ballet remained primarily French in origin
and character—graceful and dignified. Lifar describes the Russian ballet of this era as “a
French school ‘translated into Russian,’ a worshipper of charm, elegance, curved
lines.”30 In contrast, the Italian school brought speed and bravura, while stressing a pre-
cise technique. Cecchetti’s teaching of Italian ballet methods at Russia’s Imperial Thea-
tres subtly challenged the French teaching of Petipa and the Bournonville-influenced
teaching of Christian Johannson, causing opposing camps to crop up.31 Russian
DANCE CHRONICLE 171
ballerina Kschessinska, who became one of the first products of this combination of
teaching, wrote in her memoirs that Johannson became so angry with her for studying
with Cecchetti that he threatened to banish her from his own classes. Although she
ceased attending Cecchetti’s classes to appease Johannson, Kschessinska confesses that
she continued to study the Italian technique on her own.32 Scholl writes that Kschessin-
ska’s success, owing to her “quick mastery” of the Italian technique, illustrates “the
speed with which [it] was incorporated into the Russian ballet syllabus.”33
During Cecchetti’s tenure at the Imperial Ballet, some Russians felt that the Ital-
ian invasion, emphasizing showmanship and virtuosity, deprived the ballet of its
dignity and elegance. In an 1896 newspaper interview, Petipa stated frankly, “The
Italian school is ruining ballet.”34 However, to its already established combination
of French and Danish elegance, the Russian school added and adapted the Italian
technique’s precision and virtuosity. The school softened the sharp edges of virtuo-
sic feats, and aimed to produce excellent dance technicians as well as graceful per-
formers. Despite the internal debates about the superiority of one technique or the
other, the benefits of a combination of French, Danish, and Italian teaching pre-
vailed, and this era produced such notable artists as Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky,
and Karsavina—each of whom became a star of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
Owing to a quarrel with Imperial Theatre officials, Cecchetti resigned his post as
ballet master for the Imperial Theatres in 1901. Leaving Russia briefly to teach in
Warsaw, Cecchetti returned to St. Petersburg in 1905 at the request of Pavlova.35
Desiring private lessons with the maestro, Pavlova persuaded him to return by
making her own spacious private studio available to him so that he might give
lessons to other dancers. Thereafter, artists of the Imperial Theatre, on their own
accord, began again to study with Cecchetti. Among these students was a dancer
destined to become one of Diaghilev’s greatest stars: Nijinsky.
The Cecchetti-Diaghilev link

In 1909, the Russian impresario, Serge Diaghilev, assembled what would become
one of the most influential ballet companies in history. While not a dancer, chore-
ographer, painter, or composer, Diaghilev exhibited a visionary and unique talent
for bringing together great artists in dance, visual arts, and music to create innova-
tive ballet productions. The first two seasons that Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes per-
formed in Paris, in 1909 and 1910, engagements were scheduled during the
Maryinsky Theatre’s off-season, which enabled dancers from the Russian Imperial
Ballet to join his company for a short period. However, when Diaghilev decided

The following sources inform my understanding of Diaghilev’s company: Cyril W. Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in
London: A Personal Record, 3rd ed. (London: A. and C. Black, 1951); Alexandre Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian
Ballet, trans. Mary Bitnieva (New York: Da Capo Press, 1977); Richard Buckle, In Search of Diaghilev (New York:
Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1956); Buckle, Diaghilev; Michel Fokine and Anatole Chujoy, Fokine: Memoirs of a Ballet
Master (London: Constable, 1961); Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes; Vicente Garcıa-Marquez, Massine: A Biography
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995); Serge Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet: 1909–1929 (London: Constable, 1953); Arnold
Haskell, Ballet Russe: The Age of Diaghilev (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968).
172 M. B. MURRAY
to create a year-round company, many dancers hesitated to leave the job security
of the Imperial Theatres and expressed concern about missing their lessons with
Cecchetti.36 Finding his classes beneficial to their development, these dancers had
become attached to the maestro. Ever the shrewd businessman, Diaghilev invited
Cecchetti to join his troupe as ballet master. In securing Cecchetti, Diaghilev
gained not only an excellent ballet master, but also an imaginative mime performer
who would create some of the most memorable roles in the company’s repertory.
Cecchetti joined Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1911 and toured with the
company until he settled in London in 1918. Even when Cecchetti no longer
toured with the company, he continued to teach company classes and private
lessons to the principals during the company’s London seasons. In examining
letters exchanged between Diaghilev and Cecchetti, Poesio notes a “clear sense
of close camaraderie and friendship” and reasons that Diaghilev and Cecchetti
shared a relationship that “went far beyond mutual professional admiration
and respect.”37 In 1923 Cecchetti retired to Italy, but the fact that Diaghilev
sent Massine and Lifar to Italy to study with the eminent teacher over the
company’s summer breaks demonstrates the impresario’s continued allegiance
to his old friend. According to Grigoriev, Diaghilev even conferred with Cec-
chetti before deciding whom he should retain as the company’s next ballet
master.38
When Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes toured Italy in 1927, the company members
eagerly anticipated visiting Cecchetti—a highlight of the trip.39 The excitement
surrounding this event suggests that, even when he was no longer working directly
with Diaghilev’s company, Cecchetti remained something of an icon, well
respected and beloved by the dancers. Thus, until his death in 1928, Cecchetti
remained linked with Diaghilev and his company.
Cecchetti, the virtuoso male dancer

Through the virtuosic dancing of his early career and his mime artistry later
in life, Cecchetti contributed to the high performance level and choreographic
ingenuity of artists associated with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Undoubtedly,
the competition and rivalry among Petipa, Johansson, and Cecchetti resulted
in renewed attention to and emphasis on virtuosic male dancing. This influ-
enced not only the technical prowess of Diaghilev’s dancers, but also the cho-
reography created for them.
Certainly, a major factor in the Russian Imperial Theatre’s decision to invite
Cecchetti to join the ballet company in 1887 was his virtuosity. Alongside the sig-
nificant contributions of ballet masters Johansson and Petipa to the development
of male ballet dancers in this period, Cecchetti’s presence brought an element of

However, it is worth noting that Cecchetti was not the first Italian male dancer to gain popularity for his virtuosity.
See Poesio, “A Man for All Seasons,” 122.
DANCE CHRONICLE 173
excitement to the Maryinsky Theatre’s well-controlled performances. Since the

1830s, the role of the male dancer had been somewhat diminished owing to the
dominance of the French Romantic ballet, of which Petipa had been a product.
The Romantic aesthetic idealized the ballerina as ethereal sylph, whom the male
dancer pursued and placed on a pedestal. Lifar writes sardonically, “One might
have been justified in thinking there were no male dancers left in Europe.”40 And
Karsavina notes that Cecchetti’s appearance in Russia began “breaking down the
prejudice against the male dancer.”41
Legat, one of Cecchetti’s early fans, later became one of his most prominent
Russian ballet students, and still later became a teacher for the Russian Imperial
Theatres. In his memoirs, Legat calls Cecchetti a “brilliant pirouettist” and writes
that, in his jumps and leaps, Cecchetti could “rise like a bird.”42 In addition, Legat
quotes an unnamed source in the Russian press on Cecchetti, “that bone-splitting
specialist of vertiginous dexterity.”43 Legat’s comments are particularly telling, as
he actually witnessed Cecchetti’s entire career in Russia. Legat was a sixteen-

year-old student at the Imperial Ballet School when he first saw Cecchetti dance,
and later Legat and Cecchetti danced together as company members for the Rus-
sian Imperial Ballet. Thus, Legat, as a young man, admired Cecchetti, and, as an
adult, would become his peer as a performer and teacher. From Legat’s descrip-
tions of Cecchetti as a performer, I would propose that Cecchetti significantly
influenced him and his generation of dancers.
Quite possibly, Cecchetti’s virtuosity and his influence on the Russian dancers
also had an effect on Petipa’s choreography. As noted previously, speculation
abounds that Cecchetti choreographed some of his own variations in Petipa’s
ballets. In addition, Lifar writes,
There is one innovation which is particularly worthy of note, since it is the precursor of
the revival of male dancing; all over Europe the male dancer had been relegated once and
for all to the role of porter, but in Raymonda (1898) Petipa arranged a variation for four
premier danseurs. According to some accounts, which unfortunately cannot be con-
firmed, this was Cecchetti’s idea.44
This display of male virtuosity had been unheard of in previous Petipa ballets,
and it seems only logical to assume that Petipa took inspiration from the availabil-
ity of newly virtuosic male dancers. True, the Danish-trained Johansson, a Swedish
student of Bournonville, had begun teaching for the Russian Imperial Ballet in
1860 and had nurtured male dancers’ strengths prior to Cecchetti’s arrival; how-
ever, the emphasis on male virtuosity accelerated after Cecchetti appeared onstage
at the Maryinsky. Although I have discovered no record of Cecchetti teaching
men’s classes for the Imperial Russian Ballet, given his presence at the school and
his broad acclaim, one can only assume that he influenced aspiring male dancers
who wished to emulate his uncommon performances.
During Cecchetti’s years as a performer in Italy, male dancers fulfilled one of two
general roles: some relied on the gestural performance derived from commedia
174 M. B. MURRAY
dell’arte traditions, and others exhibited skills more in line with the French academy.
Bennett and Poesio note that throughout Cecchetti’s career he never danced “noble
roles,”45 and shortly after he began touring Italy, “the old division” between the
ranks disappeared from theatrical promotional materials.46 When Cecchetti first
came to St. Petersburg, male dancers were separated into two categories: the danseur
noble, of tall and princely stature, generally cast in the grand pas de deux; and the
danseur caractere, usually shorter, more compact, and assigned quicker and more
virtuosic variations. In a 1964 article for The Dancing Times, Karsavina recalled that
Cecchetti was never relegated to one of these stereotypes. Petipa seldom placed Cec-
chetti in leading roles, but he often created parts for Cecchetti that did not necessar-
ily fit into noble or caractere slots, and Petipa sometimes even inserted a pas de
deux specifically to suit Cecchetti.47 Diaghilev’s casting choices for his Ballets Russes
reflect this break from typecasting based on the dancer’s physique. For example,
despite his thick build and overly developed legs, Nijinsky initially danced most of
the male leading roles for Diaghilev’s company; and although Massine was bow-leg-
ged and did not fit the physical type of the danseur noble, he joined Diaghilev’s
company as a principal and danced many leading roles. As Cecchetti and others
ushered in elevated standards for male virtuosity, casting began to reflect considera-
tions of merit and ability rather than physical assets alone.
In addition to diminishing the boundaries in the typecasting of noble and
caractere danseurs, Cecchetti’s influence as a performer and teacher elevated the
standard for male virtuosity. As a performer, Cecchetti was known for performing
tours de force that had never before been seen on the stage. Karsavina writes of an
eyewitness who claimed to have seen Cecchetti perform “grandes pirouettes in the
second followed by pirouettes in attitude and finishing with pirouettes in arabesque
without a halt or the slightest slowing of the spin.”48 Cecchetti could perform up to
eight pirouettes and was reputedly the first dancer to perform up to thirty-two
grandes pirouettes.49 The fact that many such accounts survive today supports the
idea that Cecchetti’s virtuosity influenced the enhanced role of the male dancer.
Throughout the evolution of ballet, dancers, upon seeing rare feats, have been
inspired to attempt the same feats themselves. Cecchetti’s virtuosic tours de force
undoubtedly influenced the generation that followed—certainly the male dancers
who left the Maryinsky to join Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
As a teacher, from 1892 onward, Cecchetti passed on the secrets of his technical
virtuosity and guided the potential of a new generation of male dancers. Danilova,
who became a principal with the Ballets Russes, notes in her memoirs that Cec-
chetti’s role as ballet master suited Diaghilev’s company since the “repertoire then
was very much for the males.”50 Male dancers who had studied with Cecchetti
before they joined the Ballets Russes, or who would study during their time with
the company, included Adolph Bolm and Nijinsky, the brightest of Diaghilev’s

Buckle writes of Massine, “His legs were imperfect in shape.” Buckle, Diaghilev, 270. Scheijen writes of Massine, “He
was very short and slightly bow-legged.” Scheijen, Diaghilev: A Life, 287.
DANCE CHRONICLE 175
stars, as well as Michel Fokine. Moreover, the technical abilities of Diaghilev’s male
dancers played a large part in their initial success with Parisian audiences.
For example, Bolm astonished audiences with his virility in the Polovtsian Dan-
ces at the Paris premiere of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, stunning Parisian audiences
with the bravura and masculinity of his dancing in a style entirely different from
the French ideal of the time. And Nijinsky, famous for his ballon, studied with Cec-
chetti in St. Petersburg as well as during his years with Diaghilev’s company.
Accounts of Nijinsky’s famous leap through the open window in Fokine’s Le Spec-
tre de la Rose (1911) bring to mind Legat’s account of Cecchetti’s astonishing leaps
and echo stories of a similar leap that the maestro had made at the height of his
performing career in a ballet in Naples.51 According to Racster, in Luigi Manzotti’s
Rolla, Cecchetti actually leapt “up a staircase at one bound, a terrific feat accom-
plished by no other artist of his day.”52 Although generally remembered as an
innovative choreographer, Fokine was also a gifted dancer. He wrote in his mem-
oirs that, in a performance staged for the Imperial Ballet School graduation, he per-
formed the leading role in a dance choreographed by Cecchetti.53 “Of course,”
Fokine wrote, “I had to do a grande pirouette a la seconde which at that time, espe-
cially in Cecchetti’s compositions, was an absolute must.” And Fokine remembers
himself a great success as the premiere dancer in this performance.54
Cecchetti’s virtuosity, along with his method of teaching this virtuosity, not only
affected the way that men danced and the ways in which choreographers began to
feature men, but also indirectly altered both Russian and Parisian audiences’ per-
ception of male dancing. It appears that, by providing an example and by passing
on his knowledge, Cecchetti helped to pave the way for the remarkable male
dancing characteristic of Diaghilev’s company.
Cecchetti, the inspired mime

When Cecchetti was a young man in Italy, Italian mime artists received much
respect, and the art of ballet mime stood at its pinnacle. Poesio describes the Italian
ballo grande as “mainly mimed, interspersed with incidental dances,”55 and
because mime constituted an important element of the Italian ballet during this
period, audiences judged principal dancers not only on their dancing, but also on
their ability to communicate the story through mime.
According to Poesio, Cecchetti studied mime with his father, who was a popular
mime dancer. So, from a very young age, Cecchetti learned the significance of
physical characterization and theatricality.56 Additionally, while Cecchetti was
earning his stripes as a young dancer in Italy, his roommate, Egidio Rossi,
performed as a successful mime artist.57 Rossi was also one of Cecchetti’s closest
friends, and the two young men were often engaged at the same theater.58
Cecchetti likely witnessed Rossi’s performances and may well have been influenced
by his artistry. During his early life in the theater, Cecchetti was undoubtedly
exposed to and influenced by other Italian mime artists as well. Regardless, Bennett
176 M. B. MURRAY
and Poesio point out that it is difficult to know how much of Cecchetti’s artistic
success as a mime, which was “constantly and unanimously praised by his
reviewers,” owed to his early training and how much resulted from his “artistic
persona” and innate “charismatic theatricality.”59
Not long after Cecchetti began to dance in St. Petersburg, Petipa discerned the
extent of the performer’s mimetic abilities. For his 1890 ballet, The Sleeping Beauty,
Petipa created a substantial mime role for Cecchetti: that of Carabosse, the wicked
fairy. Racster recounts the story in detail, and we may assume it came directly from
Cecchetti. Petipa understood that only Cecchetti could adequately perform the role.
However, when the choreographer approached Cecchetti with the idea, the performer
felt offended, retorting that a fairy was a woman’s role. Perhaps the forty-year-old
dancer feared that Petipa was now relegating him to mime roles. Fortunately, Petipa
pacified Cecchetti by also assigning him the role of the virtuosic Bluebird.60
Cecchetti’s portrayal of Carabosse was an absolute success. Not only did he
transform himself from a hunched wicked fairy in the first act into a fluttering
youthful Bluebird in the last act, but he also made history by not wearing a mask
while portraying Carabosse, counter to the general practice for portraying mime
characters at the Imperial Theatres during this time.61 Feeling that the assigned
mask would detract from his character, Cecchetti attained special permission from
the director of the Imperial Theatres to dramatically make up his face.62 Racster
proclaims that “Cecchetti’s ‘make-up’ as the ‘Wicked Fairy’ astounded everybody,
and the idea of a mask was discarded once and for all.”63
During his years with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Cecchetti sharpened his skills
as a mime, creating roles in ballets choreographed by Fokine and Massine. Poesio
remarks that Cecchetti’s mime performances with the Ballets Russes “lent a new
shape to the art of ballet mime.”64 In fact, so effective and memorable were the
roles that the mime artist created for the Ballets Russes that Beaumont, the English
balletomane and author, wrote numerous lengthy and detailed descriptions of Cec-
chetti’s portrayals. Beaumont obviously thought Cecchetti’s mime roles notable
and considered them an integral part of Ballets Russes performances. In addition,
Cecchetti brought new interpretations to roles such as Kostchei in Fokine’s The
Firebird (Figure 2), the Marquis in Fokine’s Le Pavillon d’Armide, and Giselle’s
mother in Giselle. For a jubilee celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Cecchetti’s
stage career, he once again appeared as Carabosse in Diaghilev’s 1921 version of
Sleeping Beauty, billed by Diaghilev as The Sleeping Princess.y
One may infer that Fokine, who viewed the vocabulary of Russian ballet mime
as an inadequate means of communication, felt a natural kinship with a gifted
mime like Cecchetti. In 1916, Fokine wrote an article for the Russian periodical
Argus, in which he discussed his ideas for the progression of the art of ballet.

See Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 399–415. Garafola’s Appendix C lists all ballets produced by Diaghilev, includ-
ing details such as leading performers.
y
A revival of Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty, this work should not be mistaken for Aurora’s Wedding, presented by Diaghilev
in 1922, which interspersed portions of Petipa’s choreography with additional dances by Bronislava Nijinska.
DANCE CHRONICLE 177
Figure 2. Enrico Cecchetti as Kostchei in Michel Fokine’s Firebird. 1910. Courtesy of the Jerome Rob-
bins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations.
Within this essay, Fokine argues for abandoning codified ballet mime; instead, he
contends the exploration of natural movement should be the basis for mime
expression.65 Vincenzo Celli, a professional Italian dancer who studied with Cec-
chetti in Italy and danced briefly with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, recalls Cecchetti’s
mime performances as expressive, natural, and unexaggerated.66 Celli also states
that he never saw Cecchetti use any form of the standard codified ballet mime lan-
guage.67 The maestro’s ability to truly inhabit a character, combined with Fokine’s
aesthetic advocacy of a natural approach to mime, cultivated a fertile ground for
178 M. B. MURRAY
the invention of colorful mime roles for Cecchetti, including Pantalon in Carnaval
(1910), the Chief Eunuch in Scheherazade (1910), the Charlatan in Petrouchka
(1911), and the Astrologer in Le Coq d’Or (1914).
Cecchetti recalled Carnaval’s Pantalon as one of his favorite roles (Figure 3).68
Fokine based this role upon the stock character from the Italian commedia del-
l’arte. Given his family’s involvement with theater, and what we know of Cecchet-
ti’s exposure to Italian mime as a young man, we can assume that he applied the
humorous traits associated with the stock character to his role. The plot of Car-
naval tells the story “of the middle-aged Pantalon trying ineffectively to live up to
the ardent love he held for Columbine.”69 Quite pleased with Cecchetti’s comedic
interpretation of Pantalon, Fokine writes in his memoirs that, during rehearsals,
“Cecchetti played the love scene—it’s [sic] disappointments and the mounting of
new hopes—with such brilliance that we all rolled with laughter.”70 Considerably
impressed by Cecchetti’s artistry as a mime, Beaumont writes a vibrant description
of Cecchetti’s Pantalon in his book, The Diaghilev Ballet in London:
Pantalon, portrayed by Cecchetti, was another creation, a masterly presentation of an old

beau. Bakst’s costume—brown coat, mustard-coloured trousers, green gloves, stove-pipe
hat, and curly hair and waxed moustache of a suspiciously bright yellow hue—clothed
the character to which Cecchetti gave warm life. He presented a middle-aged masher of
the courtly type, who thought himself a rare devil with the ladies. How excited he was in
Figure 3. Enrico Cecchetti as Pantalon in Michel Fokine’s Carnaval. 1910. Courtesy of the Jerome
Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and
Tilden Foundations.
DANCE CHRONICLE 179
anticipation of his latest conquest. How he fussed over his appearance, setting his tie,
pulling down his coat, placing his hat at a rakish angle, and continually springing to his
feet to gaze at his watch. Time could not pass too quickly for him. But there was nothing
forced, nothing exaggerated; the foibles of amorous old age were hit off with a suavity
and ripe good humour which induced smiles. It was one of those full-bodied creations
that seem to swell and swell until it filled the stage.71
This account illustrates Cecchetti’s comic gifts and expertise in communicating

a character through mimetic skills. Fokine apparently appreciated Cecchetti’s real-
istic approach to inhabiting and performing mime roles, for he continued to create
roles for Cecchetti.
The next character that Cecchetti brought to life for Fokine was the Chief
Eunuch in Scheherazade. Once again, Beaumont was enamored of Cecchetti’s
performance. Although the reader must bracket Beaumont’s use of the racially
insensitive language of his day, his detailed description of Cecchetti’s portrayal
remains meaningful today:
I can still see old Cecchetti in the finery of his red and gold costume, leaning back to
counterbalance his simulated pot belly, as he waddled to and fro in slippered feet, the
nodding head of senility accentuated by his tall fez with its trembling feathered tassel.
How subtly he conveyed his fatuous pride in his office, his intense cupidity and his con-
stant anxiety to serve his own interests without incurring the wrath of his master, whose
punishment he knew to be swift and final. He had few scruples at releasing the copper
and the silver clad negroes, but when it came to letting loose the single gold negro, fear
showed in every line of his quavering, pendulous cheeks. When Zobeida declined to
accept his refusal and forced him to mingle bribery and threats to open the last door,
there was something both pathetic and sinister in the spectacle of the Eunuch’s realization
that he was enmeshed in toils of his own contriving.72
Beaumont claims that, after Cecchetti retired from Diaghilev’s company, this
character was never again portrayed adequately.73 Such a sentiment highlights
Cecchetti’s commitment to his characters since, according to Racster, the maestro
felt that this role was “a little indecent”; he was “happy to relinquish it at any
time.”74
In Fokine’s Petrouchka, Cecchetti inhabited a very different type of character, that
of the mysterious Charlatan (Figure 4). Cecchetti’s ability to create a spellbinding char-
acter became evident in a rehearsal for one of the crowd scenes: as Cecchetti was mim-
ing a flute solo in order to bring his puppets to life, a little girl in the crowd “as if
hypnotized by the music, was drawn forwards into the open center of the stage.”75
Fokine appreciated the theatricality of the moment and decided to incorporate it into
the scene.76 Margaret Craske, an English dancer with Diaghilev’s company, recalls that
Cecchetti was so “thrilling” as the Charlatan that the dancers onstage were genuinely
intrigued and drawn in by his character each time he performed.77
The role of the Charlatan calls for several dramatic moments; it is much darker
and more sinister in characterization than Cecchetti’s previous roles. For instance,
when the policeman accuses the Charlatan of Petrouchka’s murder, the Charlatan
180 M. B. MURRAY
Figure 4. Enrico Cecchetti as the Charlatan in Michel Fokine’s Petrouchka. 1911. Courtesy of the Jer-
ome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and
Tilden Foundations.
reacts by shaking the lifeless straw body vigorously and contemptuously at the offi-
cer, as if to declare the absurdity of the notion of the murder of a doll. Beaumont
describes the climactic moment at the end of the ballet when the Charlatan faces
the ghost of Petrouchka:
I can still see the abrupt end of Cecchetti’s leisurely walk as he jerked back on his heels,
his whole body tensed in an attitude of listening. Then, as Petrouchka’s mocking squeaks
were repeated, there flashed over Cecchetti’s features a look of mingled bewilderment and
surprise, which swiftly changed to abject fear. Full of apprehension, he half-turned his
head in the direction of the sound, and, as he caught sight of the roof of the booth with
the head and shoulders of that ghostly figure gibbering with its stiff arms, a chill sweat
broke out on his forehead. He smoothed his brow with his trembling hand, shaking so
violently that his hat fell from his head. The sound of that object striking the ground star-
tled him into immediate action, and, filled with a frenzied desire to escape, he scurried
away, as fast as his trembling legs would carry him.78
DANCE CHRONICLE 181
Such accounts of Cecchetti’s characterizations of the Charlatan show that he was not
merely a comedic player, but also an actor capable of depth, endowed with the ability to
subtly communicate drama and emotions with psychological undertones. According to
Poesio, Nijinsky originally had Cecchetti in mind for another dark role, the Ancestor in
Le Sacre du Printemps; however, Cecchetti did not appear in this work.79
In 1917, Massine began to choreograph for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Massine’s
biographer, Vicente Garcia-Marquez, attributes the self-contained quality of Massine’s
choreography to his training with Cecchetti.80 Perhaps the least contained and conser-
vative portions of Massine’s choreography for Diaghilev are the flamboyant mime sec-
tions, and especially the mime roles he created specifically for Cecchetti in Les Femmes
de Bonne Humeur (1917) and La Boutique Fantasque (1919). In Les Femmes de Bonne
Humeur (The Good-Humored Ladies), Massine cast Cecchetti and his wife, Giusep-
pina de Maria, who was also an experienced mime, as the Marchese and Marchesa.
Lydia Sokolova, a dancer with the Ballets Russes, remembers that Cecchetti was “in his
element” in this role, and that he “adored the scene in which he flirted with Massine
and Idzikowski dressed up as women.”81 Massine writes in his memoirs that Cecchetti
and his wife Giuseppina “brought an authentic air” to their roles; he also recalls how he
enjoyed the scene in which he and Idzikowski “teased and tormented” their “dear mae-
stro Cecchetti.”82 Massine set the scene for La Boutique Fantasque in Italy and created
the role of the Shopkeeper “with Cecchetti in mind.”83 The ballet recreates the “bustling
everyday life” of a toyshop, and Cecchetti’s Shopkeeper employed “flamboyant Neapol-
itan gestures.”84 Sokolova, like many of Diaghilev’s dancers, often watched Cecchetti
perform, and she writes in her memoirs that “to watch Maestro Cecchetti as the fussy
old Shopkeeper, so ingratiating to his customers, was an education in mime.”85
Sokolova’s notion of Cecchetti’s performances furnishing an education is
telling. Cecchetti’s performances probably directly influenced many of Diaghi-
lev’s dancers in this way. Diaghilev’s principal dancers tended to become
famous not for their flawless technique, but for their abilities to deeply inhabit
a role. Arguably, the education they received from Cecchetti contributed to
the dramatic and comedic depth and nuance of their physical portrayals. Kar-
savina recalls that Cecchetti was an “admirable, sincere, undiluted actor.”86 In
turn, Karsavina was lauded for her dramatic interpretation of the Firebird.
Nijinsky, remembered primarily for his virtuosity, also possessed the ability to
uniquely develop and inhabit characters such as the Faun, the Golden Slave,
and Petrouchka. Because the Russian Imperial Ballet did not emphasize using
a natural style of movement to realistically convey a character before he
arrived, I would argue that Cecchetti implanted the Italian emphasis on the
characterization of particular roles and that his distinctive mime performances

In addition to actually witnessing Cecchetti’s performances, his students likely learned elements of mime within his
classes. Bennett and Poesio explore several elements of mime incorporated into the codified Cecchetti method,
arguing that Cecchetti crafted some of his exercises specifically to develop theatrical performance skills. See Bennett
and Poesio, “Mime in the Cecchetti ‘Method.’”
182 M. B. MURRAY
with both the Russian Imperial Ballet and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes influenced
the performances of the next generation of dancers.
Maestro Cecchetti, Diaghilev’s ballet master

After observing Cecchetti teaching a company class for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes,
ballet historian W. A. Propert wrote the following picturesque account:
Enrico Cecchetti is one the indomitable enthusiasts who refuses to grow old. He was
dancing in [his sixties] and he can still pirouette with the youngest of his pupils. It is a
pure delight to watch him give one of his lessons. Alert and watchful he sits … beating
out the time and whistling the tune to which his pupil dances, and if there be any mistake
or misunderstanding he will spring up and go through the figure himself with perfect
ease and grace, his face beaming with pleasure at his own undiminished skill.87
When considering the manner in which Cecchetti, in his role as ballet master,
contributed to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the researcher must acknowledge the

impresario’s unwavering respect for the classicism of the Imperial Russian Ballet.
Diaghilev’s reproduction of Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty—the most iconic of Russian
classical story ballets—demonstrates his deference for classicism. Without this ven-
eration, Diaghilev might never have retained Cecchetti, the epitome of this sort of
classicism at the time, as ballet master of his company.
Although the historical reputation of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes remains
inextricably bound to an avant-garde approach to art, Diaghilev never
completely detached himself from Russian classicism. Haskell credits Diaghilev
with saying, “Classicism is the university of the modern choreographer,” and
he asserts that Diaghilev believed classical ballet to be an “indispensable basis
for every type of choreography.”88 Although Diaghilev certainly embraced new
and innovative artistic endeavors and experimentation, he never disowned or
disavowed the Russian classical ballet vocabulary or its rich heritage. Poesio
writes that Cecchetti might be considered the “living symbol of both the bal-
letic tradition and the theatrical conventions” that Diaghilev’s company
seemed so intent on leaving behind.89 However, Diaghilev’s commitment to
classicism held, and he associated Cecchetti with his understanding of classi-
cism. Buckle, for example, reports an account given by a promoter who
remembers Diaghilev saying, “There is old Cecchetti, master of us all, who
carries the torch of classicism.”90
Regardless of the gulf that formed between the choreographic innovations
seen onstage and the traditional classroom vocabulary, Diaghilev recognized
the value inherent in the classical training the company’s dancers received
from Cecchetti. In her memoirs, Danilova writes that Diaghilev insisted all of
his dancers study with Cecchetti, irrespective of their opinions of his classes.91
Massine reminisces that Diaghilev “never overlooked the importance of a solid
classical training.”92 Many of the dancers Diaghilev employed during the com-
pany’s first few seasons had studied with Cecchetti in St. Petersburg, and the
DANCE CHRONICLE 183
dancers, too, understood the value of ballet lessons with Cecchetti. As Karsa-
vina expresses it, “Cecchetti’s reputation as a master was that of a wizard who
could make dancers.”93
The repertory of the Ballets Russes was famously varied in style and genre. For
many years, Cecchetti taught the company’s daily ballet class; in short, he was
responsible for creating a strong corps de ballet with a cohesive style from a group
of dancers with diverse backgrounds and training. Buckle claims that, especially in
the 1911 season, the corps de ballet was “scratched-together” and “weak,” but les-
sons with Cecchetti strengthened and unified the style of the company.94 Accord-
ing to Grigoriev, the company’s regisseur, Diaghilev enjoyed watching Cecchetti
give the company lessons and closely followed the dancers’ progress.95 Often Dia-
ghilev would ask Cecchetti to teach private lessons for his favorites, usually princi-
pal dancers, but occasionally the less gifted whom the impresario favored.
Diaghilev sent Lifar, who Haskell refers to as “Cecchetti’s last great creation,” to
study with Cecchetti in Milan for three months.96 After a summer of three-hour
lessons every day with Cecchetti, Lifar returned to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes as a
principal dancer.97
Cecchetti’s method of teaching has been researched and discussed at great
length by others and lies outside the scope of this essay. However, his
demeanor as ballet master for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes as well as dancers’
opinions of his personality and effectiveness as a teacher are relevant here. In
that respect, one must acknowledge Cecchetti as one of the few ballet teachers
of his day to organize his classes systematically and scientifically, as this
notion speaks to his philosophical leanings concerning ballet training and
informs us about his personality.
At an early age Cecchetti earned the title of respect “Maestro” and it remained with
him until his death. According to Racster, Cecchetti’s fellow students at Lepri’s school
gave him this moniker “because he was always ready to help and explain.”98 Seem-
ingly, he was destined to become a pedagogue. Written accounts by his former stu-
dents refer respectfully to Cecchetti as “the Maestro” or “Maestro Cecchetti.”99 His
demeanor seems to have commanded this respect, but something else about the man
and his teaching resulted in such devotion from his students. Cecchetti’s teaching per-
sona—a unique mixture of strictness, a disciplined approach to technical knowledge,

Works discussing the Cecchetti method of teaching include Beaumont and Idzikowski, A Manual of the Theory and
Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing; Cyril William Beaumont and Enrico Cecchetti, A Primer of Classical Ballet (Cec-
chetti Method) for Children (1935, repr., London: C. W. Beaumont, 1937); Cyril William Beaumont and Enrico Cecchetti,
A Second Primer of Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method) for Children (London: C. W. Beaumont, 1935); Cyril William Beau-
mont and Enrico Cecchetti, A Third Primer of Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method) for Children (London: C. W. Beaumont,
1941); Margaret Craske and Derra de Moroda, The Theory and Practice of Advanced Allegro in Classical Ballet (London:
C. W. Beaumont, 1956, 1979); Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt, The Cecchetti Method of Classical Ballet: An Investigation into Its
Evolution (M.F.A. thesis, York University, 1987); Toby Bennett, “Cecchetti, Movement and the Repertoire in Perfor-
mance,” in Proceedings of the Society of Dance History Scholars (Riverside, CA: Society of Dance History Scholars,
1998), 203–10; Ann Hutchinson Guest and Toby Bennett, The Cecchetti Legacy: An Analysis and Description of the Cec-
chetti Method of Classical Ballet (Alton, UK: Dance Books, 2007). In addition, there are various materials produced by
the Cecchetti Society and Cecchetti Council.
184 M. B. MURRAY
and a gregarious wit and spirit—created a productive environment for potential tech-
nical mastery and fostered an exceptional sense of loyalty from students.
Cecchetti was, first and foremost, a disciplinarian. Two characteristics highlight
his strict approach to teaching: firstly, the rigorous organization of his classes and,
secondly, his irascible temperament. Numerous accounts emphasize the systematic
organization of Cecchetti’s pedagogy, and Sokolova recalls an example of this
structure in her memoirs. In her first class with Cecchetti, he placed the dancers in
alphabetical order for exercises at the barre, and at each subsequent class the
dancers would rotate their positions, so that eventually everyone had a chance in
the front of the room.100 Thus, no student could escape what Markova refers to as
Cecchetti’s “hawk eyes.”101 Cecchetti’s classes maintained their particular format
in an exacting fashion. In her memoirs, Nijinska writes of their consistency: “Six
lessons per week, each lesson having its definite set of exercises and sequence of
pas.”102 The Cecchetti manual emphasizes this focus on class structure, including a
list of barre exercises and explaining numerous combinations and encha^ınements

for center work. The set order of exercises and prearranged combinations for each
day of the week exhibit the priority given to systematic organization. Legat writes
that Cecchetti actually had exercises listed and hung on the wall in his classroom
at the Imperial Ballet School, and recalls that this system of inflexible organization
was “severely criticized by Johansson.”103 (In Figure 1, note the list of exercises
posted on the wall near Cecchetti.)
As with any teacher, some dancers appreciated Cecchetti’s classes and respected
him as a teacher, and others disagreed with his teaching methods and resented
Diaghilev’s insistence that all company members attend the maestro’s classes. Dan-
ilova complains that Cecchetti’s inflexible class structure made the lessons boring
and predictable.104 On the other hand, Nijinska defends Cecchetti’s class organiza-
tion, arguing, “The strict routine of this method develops in the student’s body an
absolute habit to assume the correct position automatically.”105 Some dancers,
such as Anton Dolin, did not appreciate Cecchetti’s classes at the time, but years
later realized the value of the lessons.106 Regardless of the individual opinions of
the dancers required to take Cecchetti’s classes, the results were telling in the com-
pany’s development of a cohesive style and in the technical proficiency that many
of Diaghilev’s stars credited to Cecchetti.
Beating his cane to set the tempo and whistling the tune for the dancers,
Cecchetti would give corrections in a perplexing mixture of Italian, Russian, and
French, which Sokolova refers to as “a fantastic language of his own … which took
several weeks to understand.”107 His students often recall him as somewhat of a
tyrant in class, notorious for losing his temper owing to students’ laziness or lack
of focus: “He was terrifying to work with … . [H]e shouted and screamed,” said
Laura Wilson, an English dancer in Diaghilev’s company.108 Karsavina writes that
Cecchetti had an “excitable manner” and an “irascible temper.”109 Having no
patience with tardiness, Cecchetti would berate any dancer who dared to enter his
class late.110 Anatole Bourman, a friend of Nijinsky’s, remembers that if the
DANCE CHRONICLE 185
dancers were even a few minutes late to class, Cecchetti would shout, “Out! Out!
Have you no respect for time and the master? Out! You are through!”111
Perhaps this added to some dancers’ hesitation about studying with Cecchetti:
he was known for delivering reproachful comments and criticisms with brutal hon-
esty. Racster comments, “Cecchetti has always been particularly frank; he is blunt
and sincere in his criticisms, and quick with his tongue.”112 It seems that no one,
regardless of status, was safe from Cecchetti’s frankness. Stars and corps de ballet
dancers were treated equally in his classes.113 Even when dealing with people of
stature, such as Diaghilev, Cecchetti’s candor could be acerbic. Diaghilev once
asked Cecchetti his opinion of Le Sacre du Printemps, and he replied, “What do I
think? I think the whole thing has been made by four idiots. First: M. Stravinsky,
who wrote the music. Second: M. Bakst, who did the decor. Third: M. Nijinsky,
who is the choreographist. Fourth: M. Diaghilev, who has put so much money into
it!” According to Racster, Diaghilev laughed, unoffended by this condemna-
tion.114 The fact that Cecchetti would make such a derisive declaration to Diaghilev
reveals the forthright nature of the maestro’s character; he was confident in his
viewpoints and unintimidated by those in powerful positions.
Cecchetti often taught with a cane, as may be seen in photographs and read in
accounts of students (Figure 1). While the cane was usually used to pound out the
tempo on the floor, on occasion it became a mischievous weapon. Numerous sto-
ries exist of Cecchetti hurling his cane at dancers, but it might not have been quite
as spiteful as it sounds. Karsavina fondly remembers that, before throwing the
cane, Cecchetti always twirled it as a warning to the dancers, allowing them just
enough time to quickly jump out of the way.115 Perhaps Cecchetti found his rogu-
ish reprimands somewhat comical, for Sokolova comments that although Cecchetti
was “very short-tempered, he usually had a twinkle in his eye.”116
However quick Cecchetti may have been with his admonishments, he was not
above giving compliments and rewards. In her memoirs, Sokolova recalls that Cec-
chetti rewarded her hard work by presenting her with a prize at the conclusion of
the company’s last class of the season. In the presence of the entire company, Cec-
chetti presented Sokolova with a silver-framed autographed picture of himself,
complimenting her as the most improved dancer of the year.117 Although by
today’s standards this act may seem somewhat vain, in an interview much later in
her life Sokolova stated that this photograph was still her most prized posses-
sion.118 With a teacher as stern as Cecchetti, understandably his students placed
great value on his positive comments and evaluations.
In his role as ballet master, Cecchetti left an imprint on the dancers who studied
with him. Legat refers to Cecchetti as an “exceedingly thorough and painstaking”
teacher.119 Sokolova recalls that Cecchetti had an “eagle eye for the slightest fault,”
which made his corrections extremely valuable.120 In her memoir, Karsavina

Racster, Master of Russian Ballet, 226. See Poesio “A Man for All Seasons,” 231–32, for a discussion of this quotation,
its multiple sources, and an interpretation of Cecchetti’s impression of modernism.
186 M. B. MURRAY
remembers one way in which Cecchetti applied a scientific approach in class

explanations: “He balanced his cane across his finger and clearly demonstrated the
horizontal position of the body, supported by the vertical line of one leg, as the
basic principle of arabesque.”121 A devotee of Cecchetti throughout her life, Karsa-
vina writes that Cecchetti was “the only absolute teacher of the classical dance”
during the time that he taught for Diaghilev.122 One of Diaghilev’s stars, Markova,
credits Cecchetti with correcting her alignment and placement, which in turn
improved her pirouettes. Having her first lessons with him at the age of fourteen,
Markova recalls how Cecchetti taught her to understand proper placement by
referring to the eight angles or directions for all ballet positions as “the com-
pass.”123 This metaphor was not only inventive and memorable, but also appar-
ently quite effective, as Markova went on to become an internationally acclaimed
ballerina.
The Italian Celli was already dancing professionally when he began to study
with Cecchetti. During the summers that Diaghilev sent Lifar to Italy to study with
Cecchetti, Celli often shared Lifar’s lessons. Celli credits Cecchetti with teaching
him the “exact science” of pirouettes and with drastically improving his turns. He
asserts that the strength of Cecchetti’s classes resided in their well roundedness,
encompassing every aspect of the classical ballet vocabulary.124 And he remembers
Cecchetti’s tendency to encourage students to continue working on their weak
areas and not just on their strengths.125 In much the same vein, English dancer
Laura Wilson remarks that Cecchetti’s classes provided a “well-balanced diet of
exercises for every day of the week from which, if you came regularly, you got all
that you needed as a professional dancer.”126
These sample accounts of Cecchetti’s teaching from his students—many
more exist—illustrate his students’ belief that the training he provided benefit-
ted their technical and artistic progress. Through his use of imagery, his
encouragement to continue working on weaknesses, and his emphasis on the
illusion of ease, Cecchetti helped generations of dancers to improve their tech-
nical and performance skills. Possibly the most important aspect of Cecchetti’s
teaching was his insistence on mindfulness and hard work. Lifar wrote that
Cecchetti taught his pupils “what conscientious work really means.”127 The
maestro may have inherited this quality from his perfectionist father, or from
his training with Lepri, who once cautioned him not to let his success distract
him from his practice. “Don’t listen to their applause,” Lepri had warned,
“Work!”128 Cecchetti consistently stressed the concept of mindfulness in one’s
work during classes, and the need for perseverance. Given his personal under-
standing of the trials, the physical and mental strain, of a touring dancer’s
life, Cecchetti knew only too well that in vigilant self-discipline and persever-
ance lay the only way to survive as a successful dance artist, and he respected
and encouraged these virtues in his students. Cecchetti believed that to
become a great dancer one must have “the soul of an artist and the determi-
nation of a prize fighter.”129
DANCE CHRONICLE 187
Conclusion
A florid period filled with flamboyant personalities, the era of Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes is often named a golden age of ballet. Diaghilev’s avant-garde productions
created by world-class composers, visual artists, and choreographers attracted
world-class dancers to his company. Perceived by the public as glamorous stars,
these dancers truly functioned as workhorses and pioneers of a sort. Although
eager for involvement in the creation of choreographic innovations, such as those
of Fokine, Nijinsky, and Massine, the dancers simultaneously struggled to maintain
and to improve their classical ballet technique. Fortunately, Cecchetti was on hand
to bridge the gap between classical ballet and the modern avant-garde.
Undeniably, Cecchetti contributed to the artistic development of the most impor-
tant assets of Diaghilev’s company: its dancers and choreographers. Cecchetti’s inno-
vations in technical virtuosity affected the way the Diaghilev-era generation of male
dancers performed and how their audiences perceived them. Fokine and Massine cre-
ated some of their most vivid mime characters based on Cecchetti’s mimetic gifts, and
the Italian dancer’s portrayal of these characters inspired the dancers who saw him
perform. Cecchetti’s performances, both as a technically virtuosic dancer and as a
mime-actor, directly influenced the generation of dancers engaged to dance for Dia-
ghilev’s Ballets Russes. Through his gifts as a performer, Cecchetti helped to shape the
identity and historical legacy of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
As Diaghilev’s ballet master, Cecchetti polished the Company’s brightest stars and
created a unified corps de ballet capable of adapting to the wide array of repertory
for which the company was famous. Individual dancers who studied with Cecchetti
left numerous recollections of him, and these reminiscences suggest that his role in
their lives went beyond that of an ordinary teacher. Cecchetti simultaneously devel-
oped and continued the legacy of classical ballet technique, while passing on his
knowledge to Diaghilev’s dancers. Encouraging discipline and perseverance, Cecchet-
ti’s efforts aided in the establishment of a historically renowned ballet company with
world-class performers. The artists he helped to develop, in turn, felt devoted to
their ballet master. Cecchetti, indeed, earned his reputation as the Maestro.
The company demonstrated their love and admiration for Cecchetti on January
5, 1922, the evening when he celebrated his fiftieth anniversary on the stage by
stepping into the role of Carabosse one last time. During the intermission, in a spe-
cial ceremony, Diaghilev and various members of the company presented Cec-
chetti with laurel wreaths, flowers, and gifts, and Cyril Beaumont gave a short
speech in Cecchetti’s honor.130 By all accounts this was an emotional occasion for
the entire company.131 A few years later Cecchetti moved back to Italy to spend
his remaining days. Cecchetti passed away on November 13, 1928. Grigoriev writes
that Cecchetti’s death was a “grievous blow” to Diaghilev.132 That evening, when
Diaghilev’s company performed Les Sylphides, Lifar, dancing the role of the Poet,
wore a black scarf, in place of the customary white one, in memory of the beloved
Maestro.133
188 M. B. MURRAY
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the astute counsel of ballet historian Tim Scholl, the meticulous scholarship of
Giannandrea Poesio, and the keen eyes and guidance of editor Joellen Meglin. The intellectual
generosity of these three individuals contributed greatly to this manuscript’s development and
realization.
Notes
1. Giannandrea Poesio, “Enrico Cecchetti: The Influence of Tradition,” in Dance History: An
Introduction, eds. Janet Adshead-Lansdale and June Layson (London: Routledge, 1983), 117.
2. See Toby Bennett and Giannandrea Poesio, “Mime in the Cecchetti ‘Method,’” Dance
Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research, vol. 18, no. 1 (2000): 31–43; Gian-
nandrea Poesio, “A Man for All Seasons: Enrico Cecchetti and the Ballets Russes,” Experi-
ment, vol. 17, no. 1 (2011): 231–44; and Poesio, “Enrico Cecchetti,” 117–31.
3. Poesio, “Enrico Cecchetti,” 124.
4. Tim Scholl, letter to the author, June 1, 2016.

6. Tim Scholl, “Fokine’s Petrushka,” in Petrushka: Sources and Contexts, ed. Andrew Wachtel
(Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1998), 44.
7. Scholl, letter to the author.
8. Alistair Thomson, “Memory and Remembering in Oral History,” in The Oxford Handbook
of Oral History, ed. Donald A. Ritchie (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011): 77–95.
9. Scholl, letter to the author.
10. Olga Racster, The Master of the Russian Ballet: The Memoirs of Cav. Enrico Cecchetti
(1923; repr., New York: Da Capo Press, 1978).
11. Poesio, “A Man for All Seasons,” 232.
12. Cyril William Beaumont, Enrico Cecchetti: A Memoir (London: C. W. Beaumont, 1929).
13. Lynn Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets (New York: Da Capo Press, 2009); Richard Buckle, Dia-
ghilev (New York: Atheneum, 1979); Serge Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet: 1909–1929
(London: Constable, 1953); Alexandra Danilova, Choura: The Memoirs of Alexandra Dan-
ilova (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986); Tamara Karsavina, Theatre Street (Salem, NH:
Ayer Company Publishers, 1984); Mathilde Kschessinska, Dancing in Petersburg (London:
Victor Gollancz, 1960); Serge Lifar, Serge Diaghilev: His Life, His Work, His Legend (Lon-
don: Putnam, 1940); Leonid Massine, My Life in Ballet (London: Macmillan, 1968); Broni-
slava Nijinska, Bronislava Nijinska: Early Memoirs (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston, 1981); Lydia Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev: The Memoirs of Lydia Sokolova
(London: Murray, 1960); Nicolas Legat, Ballets Russes (London: Methuen, 1939).
14. Vincenzo Celli, Enrico Cecchetti (New York: Dance Index/Ballet Caravan, 1946), 60.
15. Racster, Master of the Russian Ballet, 18.
16. Ibid., 25.
17. Ibid., 26.
18. Ibid.
20. Arnold Haskell, The Russian Genius in Ballet: A Study in Continuity and Growth (Oxford:
Pergamon, 1963), 10.
21. Racster, Master of Russian Ballet, 123.
22. Ibid., 127.
23. Serge Lifar, A History of the Russian Ballet from Its Origins to the Present Day (London:
Hutchinson, 1954), 147.
DANCE CHRONICLE 189
24. Ibid., 154.

26. Alexandre Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet, trans. Mary Bitnieva (New York:
Da Capo Press, 1977), 130.
27. Legat, Ballets Russes, 8.
28. Jessica Zeller, Shapes of American Ballet: Teachers and Training before Balanchine
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 17–18.
29. Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp, Ballet: An Illustrated History (New York: Universe
Books, 1973), 96.
30. Lifar, History of the Russian Ballet, 147.
31. Arnold Haskell, Diaghileff: His Artistic and Private Life (London: Victor Gollancz, 1935), 164.
32. Kschessinska, Dancing in Petersburg, 35.
33. Tim Scholl, From Petipa to Balanchine: Classical Revival and the Modernization of Ballet
(London: Routledge, 1994), 18.
34. Petipa, quoted in Scholl, From Petipa to Balanchine, 20.
35. Nijinska, Bronsilava Nijinska, 222.

37. Poesio, “A Man for All Seasons,” 241, 238.
38. Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 216.
39. Ibid., 232.
41. Karsavina, Theatre Street, 284.
42. Legat, Ballets Russes, 11, 53.
43. Ibid., 6.
45. Bennett and Poesio, “Mime in the Cecchetti ‘Method,’” 33.
47. Tamara Platonovna Karsavina, “Cavaliere Enrico Cecchetti: Family Album,” The Dancing
Times (December 1964): 130.
48. Ibid.
49. Walter Terry, Great Male Dancers of the Ballet (Garden City: NY: Anchor Press, 1978), 25.
50. Danilova, Choura, 226.
52. Ibid., 85.
53. Michel Fokine and Anatole Chujoy, Fokine: Memoirs of a Ballet Master (London: Consta-
ble, 1961), 37.
54. Ibid.
57. Fokine and Chujoy, Fokine, 87.
59. Bennett and Poesio, “Mime in the Cecchetti ‘Method,’” 33.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid., 185.
65. Selma Jeanne Cohen, “Michel Fokine (1880–1942): The New Ballet,” in Dance as a Theatre
Art: Source Readings in Dance History from 1581 to the Present (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
Book Company, 1974), 105–7.
190 M. B. MURRAY
66. Vincenzo Celli, interview by Dale Harris, December 1976, January 1977, and February
1977, transcript, MGZTC 3-938, Oral History Archives of the New York Public Library
for the Performing Arts, New York.
67. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Cyril W. Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London: A Personal Record, 3rd ed. (London:
A. and C. Black, 1951), 24–25.
72. Ibid., 36–37.
73. Ibid.
75. Buckle, Diaghilev, 200.
76. Ibid.
77. Margaret Craske, interview by David Sears, September 28–29, 1982, sound recording,

MGZTL 4-1528, Oral History Archives of the New York Public Library for the Perform-
ing Arts, New York.

78. Beaumont, Diaghilev Ballet in London, 50.
80. Vicente Garcia-Marquez, Massine: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 127.
81. Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, 98.
82. Massine, My Life in Ballet, 97.
83. Ibid., 134.
84. Ibid.
87. Walter Archibald Propert, The Russian Ballet in Western Europe, 1909–1920 (New York: J.
Lane Co., 1921), 92.
88. Arnold Haskell, Ballet Russe: The Age of Diaghilev (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
1968), 79.
92. Massine, My Life in Ballet, 85.
94. Buckle, Diaghilev, 190; Richard Buckle, Nijinsky (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1971),
172.
95. Grigoriev, Diaghilev Ballet, 49.
96. Haskell, Diaghileff, 310.
97. Lifar, Serge Diaghilev, 338–402.
99. See Massine, My Life in Ballet, 54, 55; and Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, 31, 33, 39, 46,
86, 99, 138, 229, 232, 238.
101. Alicia Markova, interview by Dale Harris, January 21, 1993, transcript, MGZMT 3-1749,
Oral History Archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York.
102. Nijinska, Bronislava Nijinska, 334.
105. Nijinska, Bronislava Nijinska, 334.
DANCE CHRONICLE 191
106. Anton Dolin, interview by Walter Terry, 1979, sound recording, MGZTC 3-1375, Oral
History Archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York.
108. John Drummond, Speaking of Diaghilev (London: Faber & Faber, 1998), 196–97.
111. Anatole Bourman, The Tragedy of Nijinsky, ed. Dorothy Lyman (New York: McGraw-Hill,
1936), 237.
113. Bourman, Tragedy of Nijinsky, 236–37.
115. Karsavina, Theatre Street, 195–96.
117. Ibid., 47–48.
118. Drummond, Speaking of Diaghilev, 140.

122. Ibid., 285.
123. Markova, interview.
124. Celli, interview.
125. Ibid.
126. Drummond, Speaking of Diaghilev, 197.
127. Serge Lifar, The Three Graces: Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Olga Spessivtzeva—The
Legends and the Truth (London: Cassell, 1959), 172.
129. Ibid., 252.
131. See Beaumont, Enrico Cecchetti, 40–42; and Grigoriev, Diaghilev Ballet, 172.
MELONIE BUCHANAN MURRAY is a scholar and an artist, a professor and a choreographer.

Currently associate professor and ballet program coordinator in the School of Dance at the
University of Utah, Melonie Buchanan Murray holds a B.F.A. in ballet from Friends University
and an M.F.A. in dance from the University of California, Irvine. She anticipates completion of a
Ph.D. in dance from Texas Woman’s University in 2017. Her research interests lie in
exploring the continual evolution of ballet training methods and performances, and investigating
ballet though a critical-theory lens, even while honoring the past. In recent research, she has ana-
lyzed the commoditization of dancers in the advertising campaigns of American ballet
companies, explored notions of ballet as a form of cultural identity, examined how gender is per-
formed in early ballet training, and studied ballet as a degree focus in American higher education.

Maestro Enrico Cecchetti and Diaghilevs

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Maestro: Enrico Cecchetti and Diaghilev's Ballets

Melonie Buchanan Murray

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Maestro: Enrico Cecchetti and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

standard for male dancing, as an exceptional mime artist who

Most ballet historians consider the contributions of Enrico Cecchetti (1850–1928)

interviewed Cecchetti at his home on multiple occasions. Racster’s book includes

Cecchetti’s life prior to joining Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

choreographic features in 1872 in a ballet choreographed by his father.25 The Blue-

The Cecchetti-Diaghilev link

Cecchetti, the virtuoso male dancer

excitement to the Maryinsky Theatre’s well-controlled performances. Since the

he actually witnessed Cecchetti’s entire career in Russia. Legat was a sixteen-

Cecchetti, the inspired mime

of Cecchetti’s Pantalon in his book, The Diaghilev Ballet in London:

Pantalon, portrayed by Cecchetti, was another creation, a masterly presentation of an old

This account illustrates Cecchetti’s comic gifts and expertise in communicating

remains meaningful today:

Maestro Cecchetti, Diaghilev’s ballet master

contributed to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the researcher must acknowledge the

list of barre exercises and explaining numerous combinations and encha^ınements

remembers one way in which Cecchetti applied a scientiﬁc approach in class

4. Tim Scholl, letter to the author, June 1, 2016.

24. Ibid., 154.

36. Racster, Master of Russian Ballet, 218.

ing Arts, New York.

120. Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, 33.

MELONIE BUCHANAN MURRAY is a scholar and an artist, a professor and a choreographer.

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