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Bolshoi Ballet, one of the oldest Russian ballet companies, famous for its dramatic performances and preservation of 19th-century ballet traditions. The Bolshoi Ballet originated in classes given at a Moscow orphanage in 1773. The company gave its first performance in 1776 and moved to the Bolshoi Theater in 1825.
During much of the 19th century, the Bolshoi was overshadowed by the Imperial Mariinsky Ballet (later the Kirov Ballet, now the Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet), based in Saint Petersburg. However, the Bolshoi began to develop its own style and identity in the 1860s, when Italian choreographer Carlo Blasis worked with the company. It gave the first performances of Don Quixote (1869), by Russian choreographer Marius Petipa, and Swan Lake (1877), by choreographer Julius Reisinger.
In 1900 Russian dancer Aleksandr Gorsky was appointed director and he continued to develop the style of the company, forming a reputation for dramatic performances that has remained. Gorsky, with dancers Yekaterina Geltser and Vasily Tikhomirov, led the company through the Russian Revolution (1917). During the 1920s and 1930s the Bolshoi developed ballets with dramatic plots that appealed to a wider audience, such as The Red Poppy (1927), which tells the story of a Chinese dancer who dies while saving the life of a Soviet captain whom she loves. Prominent dancers in the company at this time included Marina Semeyonova and Olga Lepeshinskaya.
After World War II (1939-1945), the company gave the first performance of Cinderella, by Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev, with choreography by Rostislav Zakharov of Russia (1945). Famed dancer Galina Ulanova and choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky were transferred from the Kirov Ballet, and the Bolshoi became the dominant company in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Leading dancers of the 1950s included Maya Plisetskaya, Raisa Struchkova, Nina Timofeyeva, Georgi Farmayantz, Nikolay Fadeyechev, and Maris Liepa. In 1956 the company made a sensational debut in London, which led to international recognition. In the mid-1960s, Russian dancer and choreographer Yuri Grigorovich was appointed artistic director of the Bolshoi. He produced spectacular full-length ballets, most notably Spartacus (1968). These utilized mass movement, athletic male dancing, and acrobatic pas de deux (duets) for dramatic effect. Highly popular, these works and revised versions of classic ballets have since formed the entire repertory of the Bolshoi. There was considerable opposition within the company to Grigorovich's creative dominance, however, and he was removed from his post by the Russian government in 1995.
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