Cecchetti, Enrico (1850–1928)

Italian ballet master. He evolved a system of teaching that greatly improved the technical standards of the dance. His system has been preserved by the Cecchetti Society (founded in 1922 and incorporated into the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in 1924) and is still widely used. He taught Anna Pavlova and many members of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

As a dancer he created the roles of Bluebird and Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty 1887. He taught at the Imperial Russian Ballet school 1890–1902 and was the instructor for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes 1910–18. He founded a school in London 1918–25, and then became director of the La Scala ballet school in Milan 1925–28.

In the USA the Ceccheti Council of America was founded 1939.