Cecchetti ballet class in Birmingham (and elsewhere)

[Mabs]

Hiya, my ballet teacher is running cecchetti class again next term in Birmingham. Class size is very small. And Susan is a fantastic teacher. Looking for more students!!! I don’t want to be entering the exam on my own!!

 

here is her poster.

[Ondine]

That makes me feel very ancient as I spent a week at a summer school with Susan Lucas there (I think she was the youngest participant) just before she went to the RBS!  She was a lovely dancer then, Cecchetti trained and it's good she's carrying on the tradition in her teaching.

 

https://classicalballetcoach.co.uk/?page_id=2375

 

 

https://classicalballetcoach.co.uk/?page_id=2607

 

I have no connection other than that, but anyone able to attend her Cecchetti classes I'd suggest will be enriched.

 

 

 

[Kate_N]

When I lived in Birmingham I often did adult open classes with Ms Lucas - the private classes organised when DanceXchange (now Fabric) weren't running their classes. She is a wonderful teacher. 

[Ondine]

Susan Lucas trained with Gillian Dawson until she won the Cyril Beaumont Scholarship to the RBS.

 

Gillian Dawson attended classes with Laura Wilson I recall.  That's a pretty direct line to Cecchetti himself. 

 

Darcey Bussell was another Beaumont Scholarship winner.

 

Darcey Bussell O.B.E.

"The Cecchetti work has given me strength, discipline and co-ordination. It wasn't until I got into the Royal Ballet Company that I realized how lucky I was to have had that training."

https://www.opusarte.com/details/OASP4102BD

 

It's lovely work, a joy to learn at all levels, even if you can only dream of reaching Diploma level. 

 

 

 

 

[Susan Lucas]

Thank you Mabel for sharing this and to everyone else who has left such lovely positive feedback. It's amazing you remember me Ondine after all of those years but great to hear from you! The Cecchetti method is much less know than others but does produce beautiful pure classical technique and I am trying to make it better known in the Midlands.

[Jan McNulty]

Hello Susan and welcome to the Forum!

 

I’m feeling a bit star struck … I loved your performances with BRB.

[Ondine]

12 hours ago, Susan Lucas said:

The Cecchetti method is much less know than others but does produce beautiful pure classical technique and I am trying to make it better known in the Midlands.

 

I've sung its praises on here in various threads about history but it really should be shouted from the rooftops. It's proper classical ballet trainng with a long, long pedigree.

 

I think historically there weren't as many Cecchetti teachers around and other orgs are possibly better at being businesses and promotion, but... for those who know it's Stork and butter (she says wickedly). Not actually sure if that ad still runs but I'm sure people know what I mean.

 

Anyone who can reach your classes who is at all serious about their ballet, vocational or simply as a non sporty way of getting exercise / a hobby, should IMO rush to sign up.  Grade work and the 'class exams' are both suitable for adults as well as what used to be called 'majors' and everything you learn has a logical build up which feeds into the next level and onwards.  It's intellectually fulfilling too. Lovely, lovely 'method' and way of dancing. 

 

It stays with you for life.

 

Teaching Philosophy

At every age ballet can be fun, creative and confidence-building.

I have been dancing all my life, and I found that ballet helped me to express myself as well as give me so many skills, most especially self-discipline and resilience which has lasted a lifetime. It also builds a strong and agile body with wonderful posture! I firmly believe this can be available for all.

You don’t have to do ballet as a career for it to be exhilarating and satisfying. As a form of exercise, it can be demanding, but why not? Life inevitably throws us challenges but ballet throws us beautiful ones!

 

https://classicalballetcoach.co.uk/?page_id=314

 

I'm sounding like an advert but I've 'done' both Cecchetti and AN Other (yes 'majors') and I know which, to me, was the butter. 😌

 

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Ondine

[Kate_N]

On 29/08/2023 at 08:36, Susan Lucas said:

The Cecchetti method is much less know than others but does produce beautiful pure classical technique and I am trying to make it better known in the Midlands.

 

I also did DanceXchange classes with Mr Jonathan Payne, who is another wonderful Cecchetti trained dancer & teacher. He taught open adult classes at a fairly advanced level, but regularly set us Cecchetti exercises - drills such as the 8 positions of the body, plus those hard but fun pirouettes from a grande plie in 5th! and some gorgeous Cecchetti set adages.  So there are a few teachers in the traditions in the Midlands - it's lovely material to dance, so I hope the word spreads.

[Emeralds]

I loved Cecchetti classes on the rare occasions that I managed to find classes teaching them (grew up learning RAD syllabus which was good but had a few limitations).

 

Cecchetti work is fast, challenges you, and fun- never dull and you always feel you gain something. Professional dancers around the world who have had Cecchetti training value it, and the John Neumeier school (affiliated with Hamburg Ballet) once sent a group of its students to attend the same Cecchetti course I was on as a summer intensive (back in the day when the phrase “summer intensive” wasn’t even coined) because they admired the teaching.  Only sad that I live too far from Birmingham to be able to consider participating in these classes! 

 

Loved @Susan Lucas‘s performances with SWRB and BRB! 

 

 

[alison]

I believe I know of a cecchetti teacher in Hampshire, should anyone want one :⁠-⁠)

[Dancing unicorn]

KS Dance in Warrington also do Cecchetti 🩰 

[Ondine]

Many people now teach Cecchetti, and it is international,  though it certainly isn't as widespread as it really should be.   If anyone wants to find a teacher contact via the ISTD for a list.  It's a method not simply a syllabus or set of exercises, though of course those exist too.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecchetti_method

 

https://www.cecchettisocietytrust.org/

 

https://www.istd.org/dance/dance-genres/cecchetti-classical-ballet/history-of-cecchetti/

 

https://www.istd.org/dance/dance-genres/cecchetti-classical-ballet/

 

https://cicb.org/the-cecchetti-centre-london-england/

 

https://cicb.org/

 

https://www.cecchettiinstitute.org/

 

 

 

 

[Fiz]

I attended a few ISTD classes with someone who also taught Cecchetti. It was a pleasure to dance there. 

[Susan Lucas]

For Emeralds - I also teach this online course - starting soon Sept 13th. It would be lovely to see more students from the UK joining!

[Ondine]

Goodness, days of the week and three absolute Cecchetti experts.  ('Patterns' though. US terminology is weird.) 

 

I'm probably only fit for Sundays these days, alas. However, anyone else... 

[Michelle_Richer]

A very inspiring thread.

 

I guess one piece that caught my eye was from the Video promoting the Enrico Cecchetti Diploma at 2.55, a gorgeous pointe work enchainment with beautiful music. Whilst I have that DVD , I have never noticed that piece. But then I only bought the DVD to give me some idea of the style and interpretation of the Advance 2 syllabus when we were only using the set book as no video were available for the old 2004 syllabus. Then for a single enchainment we would have to go through something like a dozen pages of descriptive text, it was awful and long and painful way to learn.

 

Later I located a full set of Cecchetti Advanced 2 videos for download from Cecchetti Inc of Australia, but the UK wasn't on their country list, bless them they added it for me. Although there were some differences it was still hugely helpful. Unfortunately the release of the 2019 new syllabus was inevitably delayed by COVID as it came out in drips and drabs with DVD last.

 

Whilst the new Syllabus is a bit bigger than the previous one, its a bit more challenging too, but I loved it. Sadly 2 years ago my Cecchetti teacher retired and soon after I let it fall by the wayside as I started to focus far more on Rep.

 

I think this thread has given me a bit of a kick to make time and recommence my Cecchetti studies, be it without a teacher.

 

Just to add to the Cecchetti resources, it worth looking at Julie Cronshaw’s websites:

 

www.thececchetticonnection.com

 

http://www.balletsecretcode.com

 

and of course her documentary : https://youtu.be/ZGT4g7FHSvA

 

 

 

[Ondine]

18 minutes ago, Michelle_Richer said:

I think this thread has given me a bit of a kick to make time and recommence my Cecchetti studies, be it without a teacher.

 

Just to add to the Cecchetti resources, it worth looking at Julie Cronshaw’s websites:

 

It's lovely work, let us know how you get on! However there is so much to it I can't imagine learning it from 'the manual'. It's useful but there's no substitute for learning from an expert, and no short cuts really. It does take years.

 

 

25 minutes ago, Michelle_Richer said:

the Enrico Cecchetti Diploma at 2.55, a gorgeous pointe work enchainment with beautiful music

 

Yes that is a delightful enchainment, one of the joys of learning Cecchetti is the music, a great deal of it from ballets and great composers, you only have to hear it to remember the exercises / enchainments, no matter how many years have passed.  Giselle has many such 'bits' of music. Turn and half and half a turn, ballote ballote etc, and even an old 'early grade' exercise for pose coupe and changements. It makes for very shuffly feet in a theatre. I try to keep my arms down though. (Dancing in your seat hasn't yet made it into the thread about bad theatre behaviour has it?)

 

There's a slightly disjointed thread here too, now we seem to be widening this to 'all things Cecchetti'.  It's disjointed as it was branched off from a different discussion, me being evangelical (with added typos) and Julie Cronshaw links.  Hopefully though it will encourage others to try 'the method', online or in person!

 

 

I know Susan Lucas has studied / taught the Ashton  /  Cecchetti link.

 

https://www.facebook.com/SusanLucasBalletCoach/photos/a.133079081903544/240015824543202/?type=3

 

 

[Susan Lucas]

Good to hear your story Michelle and well done for accessing a recording of the Advanced 2 work! You are right in saying that the original manual is very hard work! I now use a combination of the old manual (the bible equivalent) and 'Notes for a Dancer' compiled by Shiela Kennedy. There's now a 7th edition but I had to order it from America...............

https://cicb.org/product/notes-for-a-dancer-7th-edition/ 

 

Julie Cronshaw's resources are good too for a flavour of the Cecchetti method. I found it interesting and the archive material is charming. However, some of her explanations on ballet theory and posture (especially ideas about where the centre of gravity is positioned or attainable over the foot and leg) is aligned to Roger Tully's teaching not Cecchetti. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Susan Lucas

[Ondine]

I like watching the Julie Cronshaw films for the actual dancing, it makes you appreciate just how 'whole body', co-ordinated, and when required, fast Cecchetti work is.  (And the sanity of a simple barre...) Also of course the music.

 

I came across this recently, despite being a rabid searcher of YouTube I've never seen it before though it's been there ten years. It's not professional standard,  but I think it gives some small sense of the sheer pleasure that can be gained from studying  'The Cechhetti Method' and the lovely work.

 

 

 

 

 

And big shout out to Cecchetti teacher Emily Wallace in Sunderland, and her adult class 'older' students who recently passed with merits and distinctions their Cecchetti class exam, Standard 3.   Anne who gained a distinction is 75.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=637850111482263&set=a.527691002498175

 

Which brings us back to the beginning of this thread.  Seriously, Cecchetti is for all who want to learn.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Ondine

[Ondine]

52 minutes ago, Ondine said:

'The Cechhetti Method'

 Correction gah! 'The Cecchetti method'.

 

I'm in good company. Ashton coudn't spell it either. 😌

 

 

[LinMM]

Yes Julie Cronshaw was a regular attender of Roger Tully’s classes in Blandford St before he died in 2020. 
Still teaching in his 90’s!! 
Then Covid happened and I haven’t seen her since then but am assuming she still teaches up in Highgate in north London. 
She used to run a very good summer school too based on Cecchetti’s syllabus. 
Roger incorporated a lot of Cecchetti in his work and used epaulement all the time. 
He does have some interesting theories about where the centre line is in the body …where the line of aplomb is….explained in his book “The Song sings the Bird” based around the spiral nature of action. The only teacher I’ve had to give me any real understanding of just how much the en dehors and en dedans movements truly work throughout classical movement. 
Roger always called it “the great en dehors and great en dedans” which when I was younger had a certain air of mystique about it!! I didn’t really understand it until I was older and had the privilege of working with Roger once again. 

 

[RHowarth]

On 04/09/2023 at 12:09, Ondine said:

 

 

And big shout out to Cecchetti teacher Emily Wallace in Sunderland, and her adult class 'older' students who recently passed with merits and distinctions their Cecchetti class exam, Standard 3.   Anne who gained a distinction is 75.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=637850111482263&set=a.527691002498175

 

Which brings us back to the beginning of this thread.  Seriously, Cecchetti is for all who want to learn.

 

 

 

I know Emily (we both studied with Ann Loades). I'll pass this on!

[Ondine]

On 02/09/2023 at 17:45, Dancing unicorn said:

KS Dance in Warrington also do Cecchetti 🩰 

 

And here is Kate Simmons, with the lovely Chloe Horton working on some of the Diploma work.

 

Gorgeous work beautifully danced.

 

 

 

 

[Angela Essex]

Claire Hickles and Mrs Branwell also teach Cecchetti at Harlow Ballet in Essex. They are wonderful teachers. 

[Peanut68]

On 04/09/2023 at 11:26, Ondine said:

Dancing in your seat hasn't yet made it into the thread about bad theatre behaviour has it?)

Loved reading this & it did give me a chuckle as I do find myself ‘head dancing’ in the theatre quite often….realise I find my neck & head dancing along & following the dancers movements & lines….

Regularly get told off by my offspring! 

[Bella]

How does the cecchetti system work? There are standard vs grades vs senior certificates and vocational exams and performance awards. 

[Kate_N]

I don't think the grades etc is the real crux of how Cecchetti "works" - it's a system of training, codified by Maestro Enrico Cecchetti at the end of the 19th/beginning of 20th century. The classes and  set exercises are designed to train dancers for the stage.  They are typified by a "danciness" that is distinctive in the ability to do quite complex enchainements with an emphasis on how the body is presented to the audience. The lines tend to be more complex than, for example in the RAD syllabus or the classic "English" style. I also find that the petit allegro is faster and more bouncy (such a technical term 😀 ).

 

As with the difference between, say, the Vaganova teaching and the RAD teaching, it is a matter of emphasis, rather than different choreographic principles. Ballet is ballet is ballet.

[Ondine]

38 minutes ago, Kate_N said:

the classic "English" style

 

I'd argue much of what we now consider the 'English' style is actually based on Cecchetti work (passed on from his teachers) and his method, as passed on to those who founded British ballet! de Valois, Rambert, Ashton...

 

As for how it 'works' at the moment re practical training, it's been rejigged via the ISTD to align with other ways of training. There are grades leading to what we used to call 'majors' now 'vocational' where students are in the exam room with the examiner and the music, either singly or very mall groups.

 

There are 'class' exams where a small class of students go in to the exam and are guided through work with their teacher. The emphasis is on enjoyment and dancing as a hobby.

 

Many students do a mix of grade and class exams. Both give sound training in the basics of the Cecchetti style & work in the hands of a good teacher to lead up to the 'majors'.

 

The Diploma is a stand alone exam.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Ondine

[Ondine]

1 hour ago, Bella said:

performance awards

 

Apologies missed that and too late to add to previous post.

 

These are basically competitive awards for those who are keen to show what they can do to an audience and be judged.  There are prizes.  Always nice to take part for those who enjoy performing, and even better to win a prize. Good to put on a CV. Great to get a bursary for further training. 

 

These are separate from the exam system, though of course they are open to those who have taken Cecchetti exams and in training with a Cecchetti teacher.

 

https://www.cecchettisocietytrust.org/vocational-awards-2022/23

 

 

https://www.istd.org/discover/news/cecchetti-classical-ballet-awards-2022/

 

There is also an Associates scheme, which possibly should be more widely known. Open to all with talent who wish to widen their dance experience.

 

 

https://www.cecchettiassociates.dance/

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Ondine

[Kate_N]

23 hours ago, Ondine said:

I'd argue much of what we now consider the 'English' style is actually based on Cecchetti work (passed on from his teachers) and his method, as passed on to those who founded British ballet! de Valois, Rambert, Ashton...

 

Yes, @Ondine you're right. I was trying to explain the difference between the RAD syllabus and the Cecchetti work, and resorted to cliche.

[Ondine]

I think you've put it in a nutshell there. RAD is syllabus, which changes.

 

Cecchetti is a method, a way of training the body, moving, of placing the body, and so much more.

 

It's actually not simple to explain but once you have tried it, as I said a long way back... Stork and butter.  😌

[Ondine]

A paper.

 

Selected papers from ‘An International Celebration of Enrico Cecchetti’ – A Society for Dance Research online publication - 2007
20
Working with the Cecchetti Method: Technique and style in contemporary ballet training    Toby Bennet

 

 

https://tdcchanellconde.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/cecchetti-conference-2005.pdf

 

Well worth reading.

 

 

Conclusions
It would seem, therefore, that the principles underlying the Cecchetti Method are
different in certain ways from those in much contemporary practice. The way the body is
integrated through his use of the torso and the textural richness accessed through his
approach to gravity are two areas I highlight, and suggest to be of real value in
contemporary training. In addition the historical style that is embedded in Cecchetti’s
movement, far from being simply a historical curiosity, can be explored to great effect in a
rich, style aware training with the aim of producing more artistically empowered dancers.
We must, though, be careful in how we perpetuate Cecchetti’s teaching for it would be
easy to lose sight of what makes it special in the face of inevitable incremental change.
This is no easy task but the richness of Cecchetti’s legacy makes this a worthwhile pursuit.

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Ondine