Shortly after World War II he directed "The Stone Flower" (1946), set in the Ural Mountains.
The Stone Flower (1957) was one of his earliest successes at the Kirov, and two years later he remounted it for the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow.
His choreographic work, which began in 1930, included Fadetta (1934), Romeo and Juliet (1940), Giselle (1944), The Stone Flower (1954), and Night City (1961).
Lithops, also called living stone, flowering stone, or stoneface, (genus Lithops) any of a group of about 40 species of succulent plants of the carpetweed family (Aizoaceae), native to southern Africa.
"All human life is here: its graces and disgraces and there is life too in every small stone, flower and blade of grass".
At the Kirov, Fyodor Lopukhov encouraged Grigorovich to choreograph, and in 1957 he created "The Stone Flower," performed there and at the Bolshoi.
His full-length scores for Romeo and Juliet (1940), Cinderella (1948), and The Stone Flower (posthumously staged in 1954) have variously succeeded in reconciling an older classical form to new expressive demands.
For the spice mix, heat a small frying pan and dry roast the cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, allspice and black stone flower (if using) for 2-3 minutes constantly moving to toast evenly.
Sure enough, I found out that it was Alexandr Ptushko who created the wonders of "The Stone Flower," a film I saw, probably in 1949, at the only possible venue in Washington at the time, the International Student House.
