Celebrating Grigorovich's 80th.

In an unstable Russian ballet world, Yuri Nikolaevich Grigorovich's legacy preserves the richness of the art. The choreographer, widely associated with the renaissance of Russian ballet, turns 80 on January 2. In celebration, the Bolshoi has designated January 2-9 "Grigorovich Week," and the company will perform seven of his ballets, including The Golden Age, Spartacus, and The Legend of Love. The Kremlin Ballet Theatre will also show two of his ballets: Ivan the Terrible and Romeo and Juliet.

Grigorovich was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and studied at the Leningrad Choreographic School with Boris Shavrov, Alexei Pisarev, and Fyodor Lopukhov, among others. After graduating in 1946, he joined the Kirov Ballet. An expressive virtuoso with a big jump, he danced many character and folkloric solos. The first ballets that he staged, Prokofiev's The Stone Flower in 1957 and Melikov's The Legend of Love in 1961, both premiered at the Kirov. But it was the Bolshoi productions that made Grigorovich famous, ushering in a new era of Russian ballet.

Grigorovich was artistic director and chief choreographer of the Bolshoi Ballet from 1964 to 1995, a period that was hailed as the golden age of the company. Touring often during these three decades, the Bolshoi's brilliant galaxy of soloists--including Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev, and Ekaterina Maximova--became world famous.

His ballets revived the neoclassical tradition begun in Russia by Lopukhov: classical ballet, complicated, modernized, and enriched by mime (as opposed to having separate mime scenes carry the narrative). Taking after Petipa, Grigorovich became a master of the corps de ballet. His dynamic mass scenes and heroic monologues made an overwhelming emotional impact on audiences. On the Bolshoi stage, Grigorovich created something unusual for the Soviet era--in a time of mandatory optimism, he dealt with moral dilemmas and tragic themes. He expanded technique for men, emphasizing the male presence in ballet.

Grigorovich also restaged Petipa's ballets and added ballets by Balanchine, Fokine, and Roland Petit to the repertoire. At the same time, he gave opportunities to young choreographers, including Oleg Vinogradov and Vladimir Vasiliev.

In 1995 Vladimir Kokonin, the general director of the Bolshoi Theatre, forced Grigorovich, along with the music director and head scenery designer, to resign over policy disagreements. Since then he has been invited to stage his works in Paris, Rome, and other cities. In 1996, he became the artistic director of the Yuri Grigorovich Theatre of Ballet in Krasnodar (in southern Russia, near Ukraine), where he has introduced his own works as well as classical ballets. Since 1991, he has been the chairman of the Benois de la Danse, an international competition.

Adding to this month's celebrations, Krasnodar's Theatre of Ballet honors its founder with a special concert on January 10. Beyond Russian borders, on January 29, London's Coliseum will hold a gala in his honor with scenes from his ballets performed by the Krasnodar troupe as well as guest artists from the Bolshoi