Stanislas Idzikowski

Stanislas Idzikowski (1894 – 12 February 1977) was a Polish dancer and ballet master, active in England. At the height of his career, 1914-1926, he was famous for his brilliant classical technique, and the development of ballet roles. He then taught dance in London.

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. Among his early instructors was the Italian dancer and teacher Enrico Cecchetti, who would later prove important for his professional life. He also studied with Anatole Vilzak.

When Idzikowski was sixteen, he moved to England, Anglicized his given name Stanisław to Stanislas, and began his performing career in London's West End, doing musical and ballet productions. Later he danced in the Company of Russian star Anna Pavlova. When he was twenty-one, he was invited to join the Ballets Russes under Serge Diaghilev, where he soon became a leading dancer.

A small, muscular man, Idzikowski had developed a strong classical ballet technique and was capable of performing virtuosic feats. With the Diaghilev company from 1915 to 1923, he assumed roles made famous by Vaslav Nijinsky, e.g., in choreographer Michel Fokine's Le Carnaval (the harlequin), Petrushka (title role), and Le Spectre de la Rose. Idzikowshi was particularly celebrated for his phenomenal elevation and dazzling batterie, in performances such as the Bluebird in the pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty.

Possessed of a strong sense of comedy, he also became known for the character roles he created in the ballets of Léonide Massine, including the role of Battista in Les Femmes de Bonne Humeur (1917), the Dandy in Le Tricorne (1919), the Snob in La Boutique Fantasque (1919), and Corviello in Pulcinella (1920). Among his other original roles was that of the Cat in Le Renard (1923), choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, set to the score of Igor Stravinsky.

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