Ruslan Skvortsov was born in Yelets, Lipetsk Oblast, where he received his early training from Elena Timofeyeva,[2] and then studied at the Moscow Choreographic Academy with Vyacheslav Mikhaylov.[3] Upon his graduation in 1998 he joined the Bolshoi Ballet, where he has worked under the tutelage of Valery Lagunov and Nikolai Fadeyechev.[4] In 2001 he was awarded a bronze medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition.[5] He was appointed to the rank of principal dancer in October 2009[6] and was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist of Russia in April 2014.[7]
Skvortsov made his debut as the soloist of the Fourth Movement of George Balanchine's Symphony in C in 1999 and danced his first leading role in an evening-length ballet, Little Count Cherry in Cipollino, in 2000, followed by the Poet in Michel Fokine's Chopiniana in 2001. He first danced Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake in 2002, followed by debuts as Count Albrecht in Giselle, Lord Wilson/Ta-Hor in The Pharaoh's Daughter, Claude Frollo in Roland Petit's Notre-Dame de Paris and the Ballet Dancer in Alexei Ratmansky's The Bright Stream in 2003. In 2004 Skvortsov first danced Jean de Brienne in Raymonda and Balanchine's Agon, and in 2005 he performed the Miller in Léonide Massine's The Three-Cornered Hat, the Hero in Massine's Les Présages and Demetrius in John Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream.[3] Further debuts followed as Boris in Yuri Grigorovich's The Golden Age (2006), Don José in Carmen Suite (2007), James in La Sylphide (2008), Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty (2008), Conrad in Le Corsaire (2009), Romeo in Grigorovich's production of Romeo and Juliet (2010), the title role in John Cranko's Onegin (2013) and Des Grieux in Neumeier's The Lady of the Camellias (2014). At the Bolshoi Ballet he was the first to perform the roles of Antoine Mistral in Ratmansky's Flames of Paris (2008), Lucien d'Hervilly in Yuri Burlaka's staging of the grand pas from Paquita (2008), Frantz in Sergei Vikharev's reconstruction of Coppélia (2009), Phoebus in Esmeralda (2009), staged by Burlaka and Vasily Medvedev, and My Father, My Hero in Maurice Béjart's Gaîté Parisienne (2019). In 2015 he danced the part of Pechorin ("Princess Mary" section) in the world premiere of Yuri Possokhov's A Hero of Our Time, and in 2021 he performed the role of Sorin in the world premiere of Possokhov's The Seagull. In 2019 he made his debut as Crassus in Grigorovich's Spartacus,[8] and in 2022 he made his debut as Drosselmeyer in Grigorovich's The Nutcracker.
With the Bolshoi Ballet Skvortsov has performed in the United States,[9] Canada,[10] Mexico, Cuba,[11][12] the United Kingdom,[13] France, the Netherlands,[14] Belgium,[15] Switzerland,[16] Italy,[17] Norway,[18] Japan,[19] South Korea,[20] China, Singapore,[21] the United Arab Emirates, Turkey,[22] South Africa[23] and Australia.[24] His guest appearances have included performing Swan Lake[25] at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Giselle[26] at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and Asuka[27] at the New National Theatre Tokyo to mark the 60th anniversary of the Asami Maki Ballet.
In 2024 Skvortsov became a répétiteur and coach at the Kremlin Ballet.[28]
Symphony in C (choreography: George Balanchine), Bolshoi Ballet, 2010: as the Fourth Movement soloist,[72] with Myriam Ould-Braham
Esmeralda (choreography: Yuri Burlaka and Vasily Medvedev), Bolshoi Ballet, 2011: as Phoebus,[73][74] with Maria Alexandrova, Ekaterina Krysanova and Denis Savin
Le Corsaire (choreography: Yuri Burlaka and Alexei Ratmansky), Bolshoi Ballet, 2012: as Conrad,[75] with Svetlana Lunkina and Nina Kaptsova
The Bright Stream (choreography: Alexei Ratmansky), Bolshoi Ballet, 2012: as the Ballet Dancer,[76] with Svetlana Lunkina, Maria Alexandrova and Mikhail Lobukhin
Raymonda (choreography: Yuri Grigorovich), Bolshoi Ballet, 2012: as Jean de Brienne,[77] with Maria Alexandrova and Pavel Dmitrichenko
Don Quixote (choreography: Alexei Fadeyechev), Bolshoi Ballet, 2016: as Espada,[79] with Ekaterina Krysanova, Semyon Chudin and Anna Tikhomirova
The Golden Age (choreography: Yuri Grigorovich), Bolshoi Ballet, 2016: as Boris,[80] with Nina Kaptsova, Mikhail Lobukhin and Ekaterina Krysanova
A Hero of Our Time (choreography: Yuri Possokhov), Bolshoi Ballet, 2017: as Pechorin,[81] in "Princess Mary", with Svetlana Zakharova, Kristina Kretova and Denis Savin
The Nutcracker (choreography: Yuri Grigorovich), Bolshoi Ballet, 2024: as Drosselmeyer,[82] with Elizaveta Kokoreva and Artem Ovcharenko
^"news feed for 15 October 2009". Bolshoi Theatre (in Russian). Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2019. В ранг премьера возведен Руслан Скворцов
^"news feed for 30 April 2014". Bolshoi Theatre (in Russian). Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2019. Указом Президента РФ № 284 присвоено почетное звание «Заслуженный артист Российской Федерации» премьеру балетной труппы Руслану Скворцову
^Sadchikova, Lidiya (23 December 2011). "Когда просыпается «Спящая…»". Chelyabinsk State Opera and Ballet Theatre (in Russian). Retrieved 10 February 2025.
^Macaulay, Alastair (4 July 2011). "One Classic Ballet, Many Interpretations". The New York Times. p. C1. Retrieved 30 July 2025. The least problematic element in modern companies is almost always the hero, Prince Siegfried. This June it was particularly gratifying to catch Ruslan Skvortsov in the Bolshoi's broadcast (just the way he stood and walked beautifully encapsulated the heroic aspects of the role).
^"Corsaire". Theatre HD. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
^Macaulay, Alastair (1 May 2012). "Live From Moscow, Adulterers and a Ballerina With a Hairy Chest". The New York Times. p. C5. Retrieved 30 July 2025. I have admired the handsome Ruslan Skvortsov in several roles on screen, not least as Prince Siegfried in "Swan Lake"; I could never have guessed the fun he has as the Ballet Dancer, who, dressed as a sylph, improbably lures the Old Dacha Dweller (Alexey Loparevich) into indiscretion. The joke lies in how good and how bad a ballerina he makes: he has line, he has adagio, he even performs point work, but he never takes ballerinadom very seriously, and at one point he pauses to scratch his hairy chest.
^Johnson, Robert (6 July 2012). "Grace in high definition: The Bolshoi Ballet performs 'Raymonda'". nj.com. Newark Star-Ledger. Retrieved 28 July 2025. This digital presentation, starring Maria Alexandrova as Raymonda with Ruslan Skvortsov as de Brienne, heralds another joyful summer of ballet on the silver screen.
^"Ballet in Cinema / "Pharaoh's Daughter"". The New Yorker. 12 July 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2025. The excellent Ruslan Skvortsov makes an impeccable nobleman transported, via opium dream, to the time of the pharaohs.
