The Stone Flower staged by Yuri Grigorovich saw the light in 1957 at the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theatre. In 1959 it was transferred to the Bolshoi Theatre.
The premiere of The Stone Flower marked a departure from the “drambalet” and the beginning of a new phase of the Russian Soviet ballet whose absolute leader was Yuri Grigorovich. It was the work on The Stone Flower that was the beginning of his collaboration with Simon Virsaladze, who proved the choreographer’s veritable co-creator. Many a star of the Russian Soviet ballet, such as Irina Kolpakova, Alla Osipenko, Yury Solovyov, Maya Plisetskaya, Ekaterina Maximova, Vladimir Vasiliev, Nina Timofeeva etc. had danced in The Stone Flower.
In Moscow, The Stone Flower had not been performed since 1994. The production of 2008 was the first encounter of the Stanislavsky Ballet with Yuri Grigorovich.