The Company Index
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Enrico Cecchetti
Born in Rome in 1850, the son of two dancers, Enrico Cecchetti
made his stage debut at the age of five. After his adult debut in 1879
at La Scala, Milan, in Gods from Valhalla, he was soon appearing
as a leading dancer with companies throughout Europe. He made his St
Petersburg debut in 1887 and in 1890 became second ballet-master of the
Imperial Theatres. From 1892 he also taught at the ballet school attached
to the St Petersburg company and he is credited with greatly improving
the standard of dancing in the school and company. It was during his
time in St Petersburg that he revised Petipa's 1884 production of
Coppélia. He choreographed some works of his own, none
of which survive. But he is chiefly remembered as a dancer (he
created Carabosse and the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty
and the Showman in Petrushka) and a teacher - in St Petersburg,
in his own school in London and at La Scala, Milan; in Britain his
system is preserved by the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.
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