Catherine Hutchon B.Ed (Hons) FISTD

Catherine Hutchon began her Cecchetti ballet training with Rita Emmerson and Laura Wilson and continued at London College, studying with Jocelyn Mather.  She then gained a B.Ed Honours Degree from the University of Sussex.

Appointed to Leicestershire LEA’s Arts in Education Service as Advisory Teacher for Dance in 1982, she went on to lead a team of dance specialists in ballet, contemporary and Indian Dance. In 1993, Catherine was appointed as a senior Service Manager responsible for an extensive arts training and performance programme for schools and young people including Dance Activate and the Leicester/shire Schools Ballet Scheme, innovative schemes to introduce primary school children, especially boys, to ballet.

Catherine is a Fellow and Examiner for the Cecchetti Society Classical Ballet Faculty, ISTD.  She served on the Cecchetti Faculty Committee from 2005.  She was elected as Vice Chair in 2010 and as Chair from 2014 - 2020 and in these roles served on the ISTD Theatre Faculties Board.  She was also a delegate for CICB (Cecchetti International Classical Ballet) from 2014 – 2021. Catherine was honoured to be awarded the Enrico Cecchetti Gold Medal by the Cecchetti Faculty in 2020 and the ISTD UK Theatre Award 2020.

As Faculty Chair, her responsibilities included the organisation of Cecchetti awards/competitions, summer schools and courses; communications to members; faculty publicity and promotion; budget management and fundraising; Examiner appointments and training; Syllabus revisions and resource production.

As Chair, Catherine served on The Cecchetti Society Trust in an ex-officio capacity and became a full Trustee in October 2020.