Yuri Grigorovich

Biography

The fate of the Russian ballet in the second half of the XX century is very closely fied with the name of Yuri Grigorovich. Yuri Grigorovich comes of a St. Petersburg ballet family. He graduated from St. Petersburg Ballet Academy. He danced on the stage of the Kirov Theatre for 18 years. The ballet master’s talent was revealed early in life. His first production at Kirov Theatre was The Stone Flower (S. Prokofiev, 1957). Another masterpiece – Legend of Love (A. Melikov, 1961) – demonstrated the great talent of the choreographer.

Since 1964 Yuri Grigorovich has been the choreographerin- chief of the Bolshoi Theatre. The Bolshoi Theatre, with Grigorovich as its’ head, made international tours more than 90 times. He established the leadership of the Russian classical ballet everywhere in the world.

In Moscow Yuri Grigorovich created ballets which won the world-wide reputation for the Bolshoi Theatre. Among them are The Nutcracker, music by Tchaikovsky (1966), Spartacus, music by Khachaturian (1968), Ivan the Terrible, music by Prokofiev (1975), Angara, music by Eshpay (1976), Romeo and Juliet, music by Prokofiev (1979, 2010), The Golden Age, music by Shostakovich (1982, 2006), He also choreographed new versions of such masterpieces of the past as The Sleeping Beauty (1963, 1973, 2011) and Swan Lake (1969, 2001), music by Tchaikovsky, Raymonda, music by A. Glazunov (1984, 2003), La Bayadere (1991) and Don Quixote (1994), music by Minkus, Giselle (1987) and Le Corsaire (1994), by A. Adam.

Yuri Grigorovich staged his ballets in the Theatres of Stockholm, Rome, Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna, Milano, Helsinki, Ankara, Prague, Sofia, Genoa, Warsaw, Istanbul, and Seoul. He is the author of the important ballet projects at Roma Coliseum, London Albert-Нall, ancient Greek theatres, on San-Marco Square in Venice, and on the Luzhniki stadium’s arena (at the Olympic Games in 1980).

For a long time Yuri Grigorovich has been heading juries of many international ballet competitions in Russia, Finland, the USA, Switzerland, Japan, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Austria. He also heads the jury for the “BENOIS DE LA DANSE”. In 1995 Yuri Grigorovich left the Bolshoi Theatre. Now he leads Yuri Grigorovich Ballet (Krasnodar). From 1 March 2008 – Bolshoi Theahtre choreographer.