The Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of the Bolshoi, Yury Grigorovich, says he has handed in his resignation and will leave the theater unless the government reconsiders planned changes.


Grigorovich said he had sent his resignation to the theater, Culture Minister Yevgeny Sidorov and President Boris Yeltsin.


"I am not prepared to work in such conditions," Grigorovich said in an interview.


"If they accept my resignation, I leave the theater Dec. 16."


According to earlier reports, Grigorovich is already set to be removed from his post.


The Culture Ministry last week first confirmed, then backed away from acknowledging, the appointment of former Bolshoi principal Vladimir Vasiliev as the theater's new artistic director.


But Grigorovich, who has succeeding in rallying most of the theater company around him, said late Thursday he had outlined conditions to stay on in an official letter to Yevgeny Stroyev, chairman of the Federation Council's Committee for Science, Culture and Education.


Grigorovich's demands include postponement of a proposed contract system, which was ordered by Yeltsin in September to end the ticket-for-life mentality at the theater and increase its professionalism.


"What kind of contracts are they going to propose to artists?" Grigorovich said. "Seventy dollars a month? The whole proposal is a joke; the company will fall to pieces if they go ahead with it."


He added, "Considering the disastrous results of reform in the country as a whole, it's strange they would want to start in on the Bolshoi now."


Grigorovich is also demanding the replacement of Vladimir Kokonin, whom he calls a "sly bureaucrat," as the theater's general director. Neither Kokonin nor Sidorov could be reached for comment.


Grigorovich also objects to plans for a board of directors, or collegium, to oversee the theater.


Instead of including prominent figures from outside the theater, Grigorovich proposes a 15-member board made up of people from among the theater's administrative and artistic personnel.


When asked his future plans, if his resignation is accepted, Grigorovich, who has ruled the ballet company for 30 years, said, "I will go to the West," and held up a recent invitation from Columbia Artists to tour the United States with his studio company next fall.


Grigorovich's move followed a half-hour strike by the Bolshoi company before a performance of "Giselle."


On Thursday at 7 P.M., the traditional curtain time for Bolshoi performances, the ballet company, in dressing gowns and street clothes, occupied the stage to protest Yeltsin's reforms and Kokonin's policies.


Next Thursday the company is set to dance in what may become Grigorovich's last production at the Bolshoi: a restaging of the classical ballet "Don Quixote."