Enrico Cecchetti was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinona in Rome. After an illustrious career as a dancer in Europe, he went to dance for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he further honed his skills. Cecchetti was praised for his agility and strength in his performances, as well as his technical abilities in dance. By 1888, he was widely accepted as the greatest ballet virtuoso in the world.
Portrait, c. 1900
Varvara Nikitina and Enrico Cecchetti costumed for the Bluebird Pas de deux from Petipa's original production of The Sleeping Beauty. St. Petersburg, 1890
Ballet is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary. Ballet has been influential globally and has defined the foundational techniques which are used in many other dance genres and cultures. Various schools around the world have incorporated their own cultures. As a result, ballet has evolved in distinct ways.
Classical bell tutus in The Ballet Class by Degas, 1874
Louis XIV as Apollo in the Ballet Royal de la Nuit (1653)
Marie Sallé, classical ballet dancer
The Valse des cygnes from Act II of the Ivanov/Petipa edition of Swan Lake