Cecchetti Method
Also known as: Cecchetti technique, Cecchetti system, the Italian method, ISTD Cecchetti
History & Cultural Context
Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1928) came from an Italian theatrical family, absorbed the bravura training of the Milanese line, then taught at the Imperial school in St Petersburg through the 1890s before becoming the private teacher of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In London after the First World War he taught a stream of dancers who understood that his method would vanish if nobody recorded it, and in 1922 Cyril Beaumont and Stanislas Idzikowski published a manual of the theory and practice of his teaching, with Cecchetti's own involvement. The Cecchetti Society was formed the same year and became a branch of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in 1924, which is where its examination syllabus still lives. Cecchetti himself returned to Italy and taught at La Scala until his death, and separate national bodies later grew up in the United States, Canada and Australia. The method is now a minority training worldwide but remains influential far beyond the number of people who follow it whole, because so much twentieth-century teaching absorbed its port de bras and its logic.
Cultural Significance
The method reached London through the Ballets Russes and was preserved by British teachers and writers at exactly the moment when English ballet was constructing an institutional identity for itself. Ninette de Valois and Marie Rambert both built on Cecchetti-trained dancers, so the method sits underneath the early Royal Ballet and Ballet Rambert repertoires. It served a repertoire of Petipa classics and Fokine-era one-act works, and its emphasis on stamina across a week reflects the reality of a touring company doing eight performances of mixed bills.
Characteristic Movement & Technique
Arms are rounded and held relatively low, with a soft elbow, and the eight port de bras and eight positions of the body fix exactly how the head, shoulders and arms relate to each direction of the leg. Épaulement is present in almost every pose and the shoulders stay level and quiet; the line is closed and sculptural rather than extended for its own sake. Placement is drilled so that the dancer is self-supporting, with the weight forward over the ball of the foot, and jumps are worked for accuracy of beat and clean landing rather than height.
Partnering Dynamics
Cecchetti's own teaching was principally solo technique, and the codified syllabus is a technique syllabus rather than a pas de deux course. Partnering is taught alongside it, typically within a company or school rather than from a Cecchetti text, and the method's contribution is the placement and self-support that make a dancer easy to partner. Adagio work is expected to be secure on one's own axis before another body is added.
Competitive Context
Cecchetti is examined rather than competed: the ISTD offers graded and vocational grade examinations and a teaching diploma, and the Cecchetti Council of America, Cecchetti Canada and Cecchetti Ballet Australia run parallel structures. There are Cecchetti-specific scholarship competitions and international summer gatherings, but the set enchaînements rarely appear in open competitions like the Prix de Lausanne, which use repertoire variations. A Cecchetti training is visible in competitors through cleanliness of beats and port de bras rather than through any set piece.
Regional Variations
The British, American, Canadian and Australian organisations descend from the same source but have diverged in syllabus detail, examination structure and even in which day carries which allegro. American Cecchetti in particular absorbed influences from the teachers who carried it there, including Margaret Craske's long tenure in New York. Very few schools now teach the full weekly cycle; most take the port de bras, the positions of the body and some set adages into an otherwise eclectic class.
Common Misconceptions
The set exercises were not meant to be the entire training: Cecchetti composed fresh enchaînements constantly for his own pupils, and the fixed cycle was a framework for coverage, not a rule against invention. It is also wrong to read the method as a rigid antique, since its underlying argument is physiological and was unusually forward-looking about injury and overwork. And Cecchetti did not write the manual himself, so what survives is his pupils' record of one period of his teaching.
Peak Popularity
Signature Figures
- The eight port de bras
- The eight positions of the body
- The six-day set exercise cycle
- Low rounded arms with soft elbows
- Self-supporting placement
Notable Codifiers
- Enrico Cecchetti
- Cyril W. Beaumont
- Stanislas Idzikowski
- Margaret Craske
Sources & Further Reading
Cultural & Historical Context
Cecchetti Method emerged from London, England, from the Italian school during the 1918s—1922s. Understanding the cultural roots, musical traditions, and social circumstances of this era enriches appreciation for the dance's characteristics and significance.
Formative Influences
Codifiers & Standardizers:
Enrico Cecchetti, Cyril W. Beaumont, Stanislas Idzikowski, Margaret Craske
Signature Movement Vocabulary:
The eight port de bras, The eight positions of the body, The six-day set exercise cycle, Low rounded arms with soft elbows, Self-supporting placement
Primary Source Documents
The Library of Dance contains public-domain primary sources for dance history. Copyrighted modern syllabi are indexed with purchase links to their respective copyright owners. Search by dance name or codifier to discover primary source documents.
Last reviewed: August 2026 — This dance profile synthesizes historical research, cultural documentation, and contemporary practice knowledge to provide authoritative context.
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