Word: grigorovich
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Misa Kuranaga may be a tiny little thing, but she is an absolute spitfire. At 10 years old, she was personally invited by legendary director of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet, Yuri Grigorovich, to come perform at the star-studded Moscow International Ballet Competition Gala Performance. After winning a Scholarship at the famed Prix de Lausanne, she went on to study at the School of American Ballet (SAB) and win her own gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition eight years later. After joining the Boston Ballet in 2003, Kuranaga has risen up through the ranks...
...years, the Waifish Bolshoi Ballet prima ballerina Natalia Bessmertnova entranced critics with her quick, intense energy and poetic style in classic and contemporary productions, including Giselle, Swan Lake and Spartacus. In 1995 she took on another role when her husband, Bolshoi artistic director Yuri Grigorovich, quit amid a dispute with management over plans for his replacement. Bessmertnova and her fellow dancers refused to perform for a night. The historic strike caused the company's first cancellation in more than two centuries. She was 66 and reportedly had kidney trouble...
...Grigorovich quit after more than three decades as artistic director, but his departure brought only more turmoil. A battle between those allied to the outgoing leader - a communist supporter and strict authoritarian - and those seeking change polarized an already embattled corps of dancers and musicians. Leadership changed hands four times between 1995 and 2004, including a stint by famed former principal dancer Vasiliev, who was unceremoniously dismissed in 2000 by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. The short-lived replacements were all part of Russian ballet's insular old guard. "They were doing Sleeping Beauty the way it had always been...
...1970s, Western dance began to catch up. Rising companies like the American Ballet Theater, the San Francisco Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Winnipeg began producing challenging new works. The Bolshoi, meanwhile, under the longtime leadership of artistic director Yuri Grigorovich and ideologically locked behind the Iron Curtain, simply stopped updating its repertoire. By the time the cold war's walls started to fall...
Before Ratmansky's arrival at Teatralnaya Square, the company's relationship with the Russian government had been on shaky ground. Toward the end of Grigorovich's tenure, as the company was consumed by internal squabbles and its touring productions were poorly received, government funding dried up. By 2000, President Putin, frustrated with ever-increasing delays in the Old Theater reconstruction project, ordered the Bolshoi to report directly to the Ministry of Culture, which would keep a tight rein on its finances. By the following year, the Bolshoi's estimated annual budget was substantially lower than other top ballet companies...