Getty PicturesAcclaimed Russian ballet choreographer, Yuri Grigorovich, has died aged 98.
Described as one of many biggest choreographers of the twentieth century, he was inventive director of the Bolshoi Ballet from 1964 to 1995, which he’s mentioned to have led with an iron fist.
Grigorovich’s productions of the Stone Flower, Ivan the Horrible and Romeo and Juliet redefined Soviet ballet. Praised for revitalising male dance, he created elements for males demanding distinctive power and artistry.
Born in 1927, a decade after the Bolshevik Revolution, his work was steeped within the traditions of classical ballet.
His uncle, Georgy Rozai, had studied underneath the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky and the younger Grigorovich went on to bounce as a soloist with the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad earlier than turning to choreography.
His departure from the Bolshoi in 1995, amid disputes over performers’ contracts, led to the primary ever dancers’ strike on the theatre in its 200-year historical past. Throughout a scheduled efficiency, a dancer emerged to tell the viewers the present was cancelled, leaving a surprised silence.
Following the Soviet Union’s collapse, the Bolshoi confronted instability. Grigorovich moved to Krasnodar to discovered a brand new ballet firm. He returned to the Bolshoi in 2008 as a choreographer and ballet grasp.
Grigorovich obtained high Soviet and Russian honours, together with the titles Individuals’s Artist of the USSR and Hero of Socialist Labour. His spouse, famend ballerina Natalia Bessmertnova, died in 2008.
His loss of life got here on the identical day as that of one in every of his most celebrated collaborators, dancer Yuri Vladimirov, aged 83.
Valery Gergiev, head of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres, advised Izvestia newspaper that Grigorovich was “a legendary determine who will proceed to command respect and admiration for many years to come back”.
