Alexander Alexeyevich Gorsky

[2] Gorsky was taught by Platon K. Karsavin (father of Tamara Karsavina), N. I. Volkov, and Marius Petipa.

In his teaching he used " free dance movements in contrast to the academic, frozen forms" of previous classical ballet style.

[4] He was inspired by Isadora Duncan who was famous for rejecting ballet and believed dance should be a natural expression of the soul.

[6] Some of Gorsky's ballets were Gudule's Daughter (ru: Дочь Гудулы) (a revision of the La Esmeralda), Salammbo, Etudes, Dances of the Nations, Eunice and Petronius, and Love is Quick.

[7] Of the Bolshoi Theatre's classical repertory Gorsky revived the Petipa/Ivanov version of La Fille mal gardée for the first time in 1903 (Gorsky's version would become the basis for nearly every production staged in Russia and the west for decades), the Petipa/Ivanov revival of Swan Lake in 1901, Petipa's Don Quixote in 1900, La Bayadère (with Vasily Tikhomirov) in 1904, and Raymonda in 1905.

The largest change that Gorsky made to Petipa's choreography was the action of the corps de ballet.

[10] However "the dynamic, stormy rhythm, and easy lighthearted gaiety of Don Quixote, as we know it today are due in great part to Gorsky".

Swan Lake had been changed many times and was considerably different from Petipa's and Ivanov's St. Petersburg Ballet's version.

[12] It was Gorsky who first thought of turning the fantasy scenes in The Nutcracker into a dream from which Clara awakens at the end.

Gorsky also changed the story so that the roles of Clara and the Nutcracker/Prince would be danced by adults, rather than children, thereby making the relationship between the two characters a romance rather than just a friendship.