Grigorovich Yury Nikolayevich, *2 January 1927 Leningrad, †19 May 2025 Moscow, Soviet dancer, choreographer, and teacher, the husband of N. Bessmertnova. He was a dancer (1946–61) and choreographer (1962–64) at the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre in Leningrad, and from 1964 served as chief choreographer and artistic director of the ballet company of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He made his debut as a choreographer with a highly successful production of The Stone Flower (music by S. Prokofiev, 1957) in Leningrad. He frequently collaborated with ballet companies and theatres both in the Soviet Union and abroad (Paris, Rome, and Ankara). From 1973 he was professor in the choreography department of the conservatory in Leningrad. In the same year he received the title of People’s Artist of the USSR and was elected chairman of the dance committee of the International Theatre Institute. Grigorovich developed his own theory of choreographic composition. In his ballets he emphasized not only the integration of dance and music, but also the overall stage form of the work. His oeuvre includes classical ballets reinterpreted with new choreography, such as The Sleeping Beauty (1964, 1973), The Nutcracker (1966), and Swan Lake (1969) by Tchaikovsky, as well as original productions, often with his own librettos: The Legend of Love (music by A. Melikov, 1961), Spartacus (music by A. Khachaturian, 1968; Lenin Prize, 1970), Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible (1975), and Romeo and Juliet (1978).
Literature: V. Vanslov Balety Grigorovicha i problemy khoreografii, Moscow 1968.
