New Cecchetti chair appointed
Anne Butler has been appointed to the position of the Chair of Cecchetti International Classical Ballet for the next term of Office.
Butler holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Classical Ballet Teaching from the University of Melbourne. Currently Chair of Cecchetti Ballet Australia, her credits include Fellow, Senior Examiner and Life Member status. She has been an Australian Representative of Cecchetti International Classical Ballet since 2008.
As an independent researcher, she has presented for many organisations including the National Gallery of Victoria, Johnston Gallery, Royal Academy of Dance, and CORD Conference in New York. Three of her papers appear in Cecchetti Pioneers published in Canada in 2014.
Butler is the Coordinator of the Cecchetti program at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. As part of the VCASS dance staff she teaches dance history, theory, and classical ballet along with educational support.
"In all honesty, I am very humbled by the appointment that the board of Cecchetti International Ballet has entrusted to me," she says. "I accepted the initial nomination in honour of my dear mentor and friend, Mr. Athol Willoughby O.A.M. [Cecchetti teacher, examiner and patron]. I felt that this was one way that I could preserve the deep appreciation he had for the method of Enrico Cecchetti through his dear mentor, Madame Lucie Saronova. I also deeply understand that the method is timeless, and can support new generations in being adaptable and ready for the new."