Yuri Grigorovich, who has died aged 98, was one of the most important choreographers of the Soviet era. As chief choreographer and artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet company for some 30 years, he was a major influence on the development of ballet in the Soviet Union and to an even greater extent on its perception in the outside world.
Grigorovich’s first choreographies were welcomed by Soviet critics as a move away from the old drambalet style, which emphasised character dancing, large casts and striking stage effects with little use of classical technique, to a new form which relied purely on dance to indicate character and develop the story.
