Born in Naples, she studied under Carlo Blasis and the French choreographers Jules Perrot and Arthur Saint-Léon, the latter of whom was her husband from 1845 to 1851.

Fanny Cerrito was trained in the ballet school of San Carlo Opera House, later under the supervision of Salvatore Taglioni.

In 1843, Cerrito and Maria Taglioni danced in the same program in Milan; this event caused so much excitement that the city divided itself between the two great rival ballerinas.

While in Milan, Fanny began her collaboration with Jules Perrot, during which they choreographed Ondine, ou La naïade (1843) as well as Alma (1842) and Lalla Rookh (1846).

It required great diplomacy on the part of Benjamin Lumley, the opera manager, to arrange the order of the middle two solos, and when he proclaimed that the elder of the two should go last, Cerrito was reluctant to claim her 'prize'!