I fell back in love with Cecchetti.
As a very young boy, my aunt had a Tretchikoff print of the Dying Swan in her living room. I used to stare and stare at it. Not knowing what ballet was yet. But I fell in love with ballet already.
When I went to primary school there were ballet classes after school in the school hall. I used to watch outside the doors. Until the teacher chased me away because I was distracting the dancer. I really just wanted to join in, so much that my heart ached.
My parents never wanted to support my love for ballet. They supported my music lessons, because they loved music. My father pointed his finger aggressively in my face and said that he would never take out a cent for my ballet.
When I was 15 I caught the ballet teacher picking up her children from the High School and asked desperately if I could just join one class. It was the end of the year so classes were over but I rehearsed with the dancers for their annual recital.
She said that I had a lot of potential and that I could join the next year for classes, no charge. I was elated. My dream came true.
Cecchetti was the method of teaching – I practised every single day.
I stopped ballet for 5 years, because I had to start working. But when I moved to Johannesburg, a big city. I was able to dance again. But it was open classes.
I wanted to do syllabus classes. I looked for Cecchetti schools but couldn’t find one that fit into my busy schedule.
I started doing Vaganova classes. I absolutely loved it. The expressiveness. The beautiful port de bras. The extremely difficult adages. Most dancers don’t like adage, but I find it exhilarating.
I got so strong, never ever was I that strong. But I was focusing on the wrong things. Practising getting my leg higher and higher, getting flatter turnout.
My teacher at the time kept yelling at me: “Deon! Turn out more!” “Wrapping! Wrapping! Wrapping!” I just couldn’t do it. No matter how hard I tried. My feet can’t wrap around my ankle in the Vaganova technique. Which made the frappés very difficult.
But my knees started to hurt really. My back started to hurt. Not because of the technique but because I was forcing my turnout and trying to hard to lift my leg above nighty degrees.
it is not that Vaganova was not a good method. Objectively it is a fantastic method. I was focusing on practising the wrong things. And I lost my ability to dance freely. I lost my lightness on my feet. I lost the alignment of my shoulders because you have to focus so hard on the port de bras when doing the pliés.
I later lost my job. And couldn’t pay for lessons anymore. But I needed to dance. So I made a deal with my friend who is a Cecchetti teacher. Helping him mark his papers from the art school, driving him around, and other chores to earn lessons.
When we started lessons, I fell in love with Cecchetti again. Watching a documentary on YouTube, and a lecture by Cecchetti.
I saw the advanced levels and that really motivated me, I want to get there. I started practising more, and working harder. Doing more floor barre and core exercises.
I never thought I would improve as a 31 year old adult.
I love the repetition of Cecchetti. It makes me feel so focused. What annoyed me so much about Vaganova is that before I could master a combination, they changed it. No matter what level. It was quite frustrating and I felt so lost in every class. And this gave me a lot of anxiety. And sometimes I avoided classes because of it.
I improved so much when I started Cecchetti again. I can jump lightly again. I can dance more freely again. And I cannot wait to get to the higher levels (I am at Intermediate Foundation).
My teacher is wonderful. His anatomical and biomechanical knowledge is stupendous. So I feel safe in his hands. I am focusing on techniques, not on added gimmicks that take the focus of building solid technique. And by not forcing my turnout but just by focusing on working the correct muscles, my turnout improved naturally by focusing on the correct muscles.
I am not dismissing any other techniques. All techniques have merit, and it also depends on the individual dancer. But biomechanically for my body Cecchetti works better for me.
Vaganova seems to be the most popular technique at the moment. But people must understand that everyone’s bodies are different. And admiring dancers on Instagram who are anatomically blessed and trying to achieve their level of flexibility and extreme extensions is very dangerous. I am no expert but that is just logical.
And on that note, one does not need to lift the leg so high all the time. And do an arabesque above ninety degrees all the time. There we lose the artistry of ballet. We lose the essence of ballet. It becomes a show-off of tricks and not creating beautiful art and classical lines.
What I also love about Cecchetti is the subtleness, the slightly inclined and turned heads. The romantic quality of it. The ports de bras are so beautiful and my back is getting so strong by practising them very often. It is just beautiful.
And when you focus on having solid technique, and when you achieve adding good techniques then you can add fancy, expressive arms.
I am not going to become a professional. I just want to dance freely, and be light on my feet. And Cecchetti allows me to be the dancer I always wanted to be.
I love Cecchetti more out of all the techniques and I have tried a few of them, including RAD and Vaganova.
But I am a fan of RAD dancers, Vaganova dancers, Royal Ballet dancers, Bournonville dancers. Every dancer is an individual and their artistry is what moves you, not the technique they are trained in.
This is my personal dancing experience. And I still love Vaganova but I love Cecchetti more. And as an older dancer I feel that my body is safer doing Cecchetti.
Deon Hattingh, November 2024
