page_title: Stanislas Idzikowski
section_title: In Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
hierarchical_section_title: Stanislas Idzikowski / In Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
context_page_description: Stanislas Idzikowski was a Polish dancer and ballet master, active in England, and with such historic companies as Pavlova's, Ballets Russes, and Vic-Wells. During his performance career, 1910-1933, he became famous for his brilliant classical technique, and for the development of ballet roles. With Beaumont he co-authored an influential book on the Cecchetti Method, still in print. He later taught dance in London.
context_section_description: A small, muscular man, Idzikowski had developed a strong classical ballet technique and was capable of performing virtuosic feats. With the Diaghilev company, he first assumed roles made famous by Vaslav Nijinsky, its former star performer and a world celebrity. Thus, in choreographer Michel Fokine's ballets Idzikowski danced: the role of Harlequin in Le Carnaval; in Petrushka, the title role; and in Le Spectre de la Rose, the Spirit.
  Yet their interpretive approach could differ. As Harlequin, Nijinsky expressed a "spirit of subtle mockery and cynical worldly wisdom". While Idzikowski, according to Beaumont, danced the part with a "mischievous certainty, but always good natured".
  These roles "previously seemed the particular property of that great genius Nijinsky. Few things are more unnerving to a dancer than to execute a dance which the public is accustomed to see performed by someone else."
  Idzikowshi was particularly celebrated for his phenomenal elevation and dazzling batterie. As before him Cecchetti in 1890, and Nijinsky in 1907, Idzikowski in 1921 performed as the Blue Bird in the pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty of Tchaikovsky. "[His] most famous role was the Blue Bird in The Sleeping Princess of 1921" premiering in London.
  Possessed of a strong sense of comedy and drama, he also became known for the character roles he created in the ballets of Léonide Massine, including the role of the Cat in Kikimora (1916), Battista in Les Femmes de Bonne Humeur (1917), the Spark (Dandy) in Le Tricorne (1919), the Snob in La Boutique Fantasque (1919), and Corviello in Pulcinella (1920). Among his other original roles was the Cock on his perch in Le Renard (1923), choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska.
  Having briefly left Ballets Russes in 1924, Idzikowski in 1925 rejoined the company. He danced with Alexandra Danilova in its production of Jack in the Box, with music by the late Erik Satie, choreography by George Balanchine. When Sergei Diaghilev unexpectedly died in 1929, however, the ballet world lost not only the gifted impresario, but also his company as "the Ballets Russes collapsed".
caption: Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Russian stamp. Idzikowski danced here, 1914-1924, 1925-1929.[10][11]
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:02:28 10:31:26", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9425", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "719", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "516"}