Yuri Grigorovich, 1927–2025, Redefined Russian Ballet

Yuri Grigorovich, a choreographer and ballet master who helped define Soviet-era Russian ballet, died on May 19, 2025. He was 98.

Grigorovich was well-known for his choreographic contributions to classical ballet—most notably his 1968 full-length, Spartacus—as well as for leading the Bolshoi Ballet from 1964 to 1995. His choreography moved the Russian style from its pantomime-heavy past to a future that foregrounded pure dance expression.

“I think every kind of ballet has the right to exist. But I am not so interested in abstract symphonic ballets,” he said in a 1991 Dance Magazine interview with writer Robert Johnson. “I’m interested in dramatic ballets and I try to express theater through music.”

Valentina Kozlova danced at the Bolshoi during Grigorovich’s tenure. “[His style is] short, it’s precise, it’s danceable,” she told Dance Magazine shortly after his death. “[Grigorovich] was a person of the future.”

Grigorovich was born in 1927 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He studied ballet at the Leningrad Choreographic School (now the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) and performed with the Kirov Ballet (now the Mariinsky Ballet) as a soloist.

In 1957, while still dancing at the Kirov, he choreographed a remake of The Stone Flower for the company. Called “a true revolution in the history of Soviet ballet” by Nina Alovert in a 1987 Dance Magazine article, the technically difficult, neoclassical-leaning ballet marked his breakout moment as a dancemaker. He became a full-time choreographer at the Kirov, where he jumpstarted the careers of dancers including Alla Osipenko and Irina Kolpakova. A 1959 invitation to stage The Stone Flower at the Bolshoi began Grigorovich’s relationship with the Moscow-based company he would later lead.

In 1968, he created Spartacus, which would become his most successful work and a staple of the Bolshoi repertoire. A full-fledged spectacle, with a large cast and dramatic costuming, Spartacus notably showcased athletic, muscular male dancing—a rarity in Russian ballet at the time. The prolific Grigorovich choreographed many other works, including his 1961 The Legend of Love and 1975 Ivan the Terrible, in addition to making his own versions of classics, including Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty, and La Bayadère.

Grigorovich was known for the tight control he kept over the Bolshoi dancers and repertory. Kozlova remembers him as a perfectionist who held the company to a very high standard. “Yuri Grigorovich really lived for his love—and his love was dance and choreography,” Kozlova says. “It was a treasured moment when he would finally come to you and say, ‘You see? I knew you could do it.’ ”

Grigorovich was not without critics. Some stars, including Vladimir Vasiliev and Maya Plisetskaya, voiced their disapproval of his leadership style at the Bolshoi and the choreographic monopoly he asserted over the company’s repertoire. Some dance critics, including many American writers, disliked his style, with its steely force and broad storytelling. Grigorovich’s ballets also sometimes featured communist messaging.

After his departure from the Bolshoi in 1995, Grigorovich started his own eponymous company in Krasnodar, which has since shuttered. He also led the juries of various international ballet competitions, including Moscow’s Benois de la Danse. In 2008, he returned to the Bolshoi as a choreographer and ballet master, positions he held until his death. During his lifetime, he received many of the highest honors awarded to Russian artists, including the Lenin Prize and People’s Artist award.

“He was unique,” Kozlova says. “People might like or not like his ballets, but there was substance.”