Yuri Grigorovich

Born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in 1927, Yuri Grigorovich studied at the Leningrad Choreography School. He joined the Kirov Ballet as a soloist in 1946, His first major choreographic work for the Kirov Ballet, The Stone Flower, premiered in 1957. In 1964 he became chief choreographer of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet - a position he held until 1988. From 1988 to 1995, he held the position of artistic director at the Bolshoi Ballet. From 1996 onwards, Grigorovich directed a ballet company in Krasnodar in southern Russia.

In addition to Spartacus, Grigorovich choreographed the pieces Spartacus (1968) Ivan the Terrible (1975), Angara (1976) and The Golden Age (1982) for the Bolshoi Ballet. He also reworked the classics The Sleeping Beauty (1963), The Nutcracker (1966), Swan Lake (1969), Raymonda (1984), Giselle (1987), La Bayadère (1991), Giselle (1987), La Fille mal gardée (1993), Le Corsaire (1994) and Don Quixote (1995). Grigorovich had his choreographies performed also at the other side of the Iron Curtain, for example at the Vienna State Opera (1973), the Opéra national de Paris (1976), the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen (1983) and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan (1989). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, his works were performed at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw (1997), the State Opera in Istanbul (2000) and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (2017), among others.

Grigorovich was married to the dancer Natalia Bessmertovna. From 1974 to 1988, he taught as a professor of choreography at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Leningrad. He chaired the jury of the Prix Benois de la Danse from 1992 to 2021. He himself has also received numerous honours, such as the Order of Lenin (the highest award in the Soviet Union) in 1976 and the ‘Golden Mask’ theatre prize in 2003.