The score of Aram Khachaturian{u2019}s Spartacus that he finished in 1954 has never been performed in the original version. Leonid Jacobson, the choreographer of the celebrated Leningrad premiere of 1956 in the Kirov Theatre, already shortened, changed and altered the score and the dramaturgy and acquired the composer to compose a range of new numbers or change existing ones according to the needs of the choreography. Today Spartacus is generally known in the version of Yuri Grigorovich, who, in his effort to push back the pantomime and return the dance to the fore also made deep changes to the score. The success of Grigorovich{u2019}s choreography, first played at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1968, is in no small part down to the spectacular battle scenes and the two virtuoso leading male roles, here embodied through Irek Mukhamedov (Dancer of the Year 1992 chosen by Dance and Dancers and Independent On Sunday, the Gino Tani Dance Award 1992 in Italy, Nijinsky Medal 1998, OBE in the New Years Honours List 2000) and Aleksandr Vetrov.