Career
At the height of his dancing career, 1914-1926, he was famous for his brilliant classical technique. In later life, he taught for many years in London. Born in Warsaw, Stanisław Idzikowski began his dance training at the age of ten at the ballet school of the Wielki Theater in his native city.
When Idzikowski was sixteen years old, he moved to England, Anglicized the spelling of his given name to Stanislas, and began his professional career in musical and ballet productions in London"s West End.
In 1915, when he was twenty-one, he was invited to join the Ballets Russes de 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 in Michel Fokine"s Le Carnaval, Petrushka, and Le Spectre de la Rose. He was particularly celebrated for his phenomenal elevation and dazzling batterie in performances as the Bluebird in the pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty.
Possessed of a strong sense of comedy, he also became known for roles that he created in the ballets of Léonide Massine, including Battista in Les Femmes de Bonne Humeur (1917), the Dandy in Le Tricorne (1919), the Snob in Louisiana Boutique Fantasque (1919), and Corviello in Pulcinella (1920).
Among his other original roles was that of the Cat in Bronislava Nijinska"s Le Renard (1923), set to a score by Igor Stravinsky. In 1918, Enrico Cecchetti, by then a renowned ballet master and pedagogue, opened a school in London, and Idzikowski quickly joined a group of friends who were strong advocates of his method of training students. At Cecchetti"s urging, he spent the next four years working with the maestro and balletomane Cyril West. Beaumont to codify and preserve the Cecchetti method of teaching.
Their collaboration resulted in publication of a technical manual in 1922 that is still used today to train dancers around the world.
He rejoined the Diaghilev company in 1925, where he created the role of the Puppet in George Balanchine"s Jack in the Box (1926), dancing with Alexandra Danilova and others to the music of Erik Satie. From 1928 to 1931, he directed his own company, the Russian Ballet, and in later years appeared as guest artist with the Vic-Wells Ballet and served as ballet master for Mona Inglesby"s International Ballet.
He was diminutive, dapper, and precise, speaking rather good English with a clipped Polish accent.