Stanislas Idzikowski
Born in Warsaw Stanisław Idzikowski at the age of ten began his formal dance training, at the ballet school of the Wielki Theatre in his native city.
[1] Among his early instructors was the Italian dancer and teacher Enrico Cecchetti, who would later prove important for his professional life.
[4] Auguste Berger a Bohemian then instructed him which led to his stage debut in Ali Baba, a ballet divertissement.
His performing career in London's West End then began, doing musical and ballet productions, e.g., The Belle of New York in 1911.
[6][7][8][9] A small, muscular man, Idzikowski had developed a strong classical ballet technique and was capable of performing virtuosic feats.
[12] With the Diaghilev company, he first assumed roles made famous by Vaslav Nijinsky,[13][14] its former star performer and a world celebrity.
[23][24][25] 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.
[31] 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),[32][33] and Corviello in Pulcinella (1920).
[39] He danced with Alexandra Danilova in its production of Jack in the Box, with music by the late Erik Satie, choreography by George Balanchine.
[44][45] In 1924, both on leave from Ballets Russes, Idzikowski appeared with his frequent dance partner Lydia Lopokova at the London Coliseum.
[59] For Vic-Wells, Idzikowski also performed his well-known Blue Bird role in the revised, one-act Aurora's Wedding, and his Harlequin in Carnaval.
[65] In 1918 Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1928), by then a renowned dancer, ballet master and pedagogue,[66][67] opened a school in London.
[69] Demonstration of basic positions and exercises were made by Cecchetti and by Idzikowski, with commentary, which were then drawn by Randolph Schwabe and reduced by Beaumont to a written text.
[70][71][72][73][74] "[E]ach pupil is constructed differently, both physically and temperamentally, so that each requires adaptations of the lesson in order to supply his own particular needs.
...""[A]s your experience increases, you may with advantage study the sister arts of mime, music, painting, drawing, and sculpture.
She remembered him as a guest teacher during her early years at Sadler's Wells under Ninette de Valois, which would have been in the mid 1930s: "My favorite was Stanislas Idzikowski, affectionately known as Idzi, a brilliant dancer who had been with the Diaghilev Ballet.
"[86] "How describe those difficult steps performed with an ease which makes them appear elementary to the ordinary spectator, while the professional onlooker, swayed between astonishment and rapture, can scarce believe the evidence of his eyes.
[89][90] "When he was given a slice of melon, Idzikowski, in a brilliant extempore piece of miming, ate it as if playing on a mouth-organ.
To shatter his conceit I made the melon-seller knock him over with the barrow, but springing into the air, he came to rest with a bow and one hand raised to twirl his mustache."
