Cecchetti

Having studied all the major ballet teaching methods, the school's Artistic Director, Miss Francesca has chosen the Cecchetti method as a basis for her teaching, and has now developed the Francesca Method.

Miss Francesca was very fortunate to study closely with the late Molly Lake, herself a pupil of Enrico Cecchetti, and Founder Member of the Cecchetti Society.

The understanding and insight into the true teachings of Maestro Cecchetti and the meaning of the Cecchetti method of teaching ballet, that Miss Lake shared with Francesca, are obviously very valuable and rare gifts, probably unequalled in the USA.

Miss Francesca was also fortunate to know Cyril Beaumont (scholars of ballet and the Cecchetti method will know him as one of the writers of the famous original Cecchetti Manual).

A brief history: Cyril Beaumont, a world-renowned dance historian and friend of Cecchetti said, "What impressed me most about the Cecchetti method of teaching was the way in which each exercise played a definite and planned part in the student's technical development. There is nothing haphazard about the system, nothing which depended on the teacher's mood of the moment. There is a definite plan to daily classes." The method devised by Maestro Cecchetti was recorded and published in 1922 by Cyril Beaumont with the help of ldzikowski and Cecchetti, himself in "The Manual of Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing (Cecchetti Method)."

Having finished the manual on the Cecchetti Method, 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 members were Cyril Beaumont, Margaret Craske, Fridericka Derra de Moroda, Molly Lake, Jane Forrestier, Dame Marie Rambert, and Dame Ninette de Valois. Cecchetti and his wife were the first president and vice president of the Cecchetti Society. From this Society, branches have developed in all parts of the world.

"Dedicated to producing dancers of the finest technique & quality."