**early bird discounts end July 26th**

Budding film makers, dancers, choreographers and producers will love this:

Ballet students at South West Dance Theatre hear a lot of reference to Cecchetti - this is your chance to really dig your teeth in and find out more about this ballet figurehead, the world he lived in and the ballets he influenced.

And we are now offering an afternoon with dance film maker Will Liney (https://wlineyfilm.com/) to pull together a short film keepsake of what we learn over the day! Workshop participants will learn some filming basics, form groups with different roles (cameraman, choreographer, dancer etc) learn to story board their ideas and finish up with a short film edited by Liney himself.
(Only those who want to be in front of the camera will be shot in the film.)

Aimed at ages 7-12 years old - no prior ballet or film making experience required (but we can still stretch those who have do have experience!)

Still wondering what Cecchetti is?

Cecchetti is a style of ballet training that takes after the legendary Enrico Cecchetti. The day will give a flavour of the ballet training principles that had ballet's greatest stars clinging to his coaching, some of the ballets he and his students shaped, as well as the dramatic history of the world around him at the time.

Like the Nile Rodgers of 19th century ballet, everyone who was anyone in those circles at the time worked with Cecchetti at some point. As a dancer in his early career, he created the iconic role of Bluebird in Sleeping Beauty, and later he coached ballet legends including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky, Marie Rambert, Ninette de Valois and Leonide Massine.

Born back stage in a theatre in Italy in 1850, Enrico's whole life was steeped in dance and theatre. He worked with the Imperial Russian Ballet in Russia during the political hotbed of 1890s Russia, leaving for Warsaw just a few years before the Russian revolution of 1905. He joined the Diaghilev Ballet Russes in 1909 shortly before break out of the first World War, during which the company fled Europe to tour America. In 1918 he opened a school in London, eventually returning to Italy before he died in 1928.

Dance during the day will be taught by South West Dance Theatre director Anna Demming Davis, whose Cecchetti training has been moulded by a stellar line up of teachers including Dorothy Ind, Penny Kay, Cara Drower, the late Joan Hewson (whose training traces back through Margaret Saul and Margaret Craske to Cecchetti himself), and senior examiner Cecchetti Society Trust Chair and former Cecchetti Faculty Committee Chair Elisabeth Swan, with whom Anna continues to train. (https://www.southwestdancetheatre.co.uk/the_dancers.html)

*Anyone who needs help with the 9-10am gap and/or the 4-5pm gap at the end of the day, please email [email protected] as we may be able to accommodate this for a small additional fee.

Cecchetti day line up

10:00 am – intro

10:15am – Cecchetti principles of dance and his “days of the week” approach (learn how dancers from Pavlova and Nijinsky to Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sembe train)

11:00am (break)

11:15am – Cecchetti’s timeline (learn his bio from birth back stage in an Italian theatre, through revolutionary Russia and the First World War)

11:30am - Repertoire:

Imperial Ballet - Sleeping Beauty – Bluebird solo (as danced by Cecchetti), and the Dying Swan (as danced by Pavlova)

Diaghilev Ballets Russes - L’Apres Midi d’un Faun (as danced by Nijinsky)

12:30am – (lunch)

1:00am – warm up, filming basics breakdown and story boarding

2:00pm – devising and rehearsing

3:00pm – filming

3:45pm – parents/guardians may be treated to a live rendition of some of the choreography from the day.

Following day(s) - edited movie clip sent out to participants

Photos:
https://picryl.com/media/the-russian-revolution-1905-q81553-f6a71e

https://picryl.com/media/sleeping-beauty-enrico-cecchetti-and-varvara-nikitina-bluebird-and-princess-e6d5bd

https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net/media/anna-pavlova-as-the-dying-swan-afd981

Faun (Nijinsky) moving right, holding maenad's dress. Photograph 1912 by Adolf de Meyer from the 1914 book "Nijinsky: L'Apres-midi d'un Faune" (CC-UPDD)