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] the United Kingdom,[12] France, the Netherlands, Belgium,[13] Switzerland,[14] Italy, Norway, Japan,[15] South Korea,[16] China, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey,[17] South Africa[18] and Australia.[19] His guest appearances have included performing Swan Lake[20] at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Giselle[21] at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and Asuka[22] 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.[23]
Symphony in C (choreography: George Balanchine), Bolshoi Ballet, 2010: as the Fourth Movement soloist, with Myriam Ould-Braham
Esmeralda (choreography: Yuri Burlaka and Vasily Medvedev), Bolshoi Ballet, 2011: as Phoebus,[53][54] with Maria Alexandrova, Ekaterina Krysanova and Denis Savin
Le Corsaire (choreography: Yuri Burlaka and Alexei Ratmansky), Bolshoi Ballet, 2012: as Conrad, with Svetlana Lunkina and Nina Kaptsova
The Bright Stream (choreography: Alexei Ratmansky), Bolshoi Ballet, 2012: as the Ballet Dancer,[55] with Svetlana Lunkina, Maria Alexandrova and Mikhail Lobukhin
Raymonda (choreography: Yuri Grigorovich), Bolshoi Ballet, 2012: as Jean de Brienne, with Maria Alexandrova and Pavel Dmitrichenko
Don Quixote (choreography: Alexei Fadeyechev), Bolshoi Ballet, 2016: as Espada,[56] with Ekaterina Krysanova, Semyon Chudin and Anna Tikhomirova
The Golden Age (choreography: Yuri Grigorovich), Bolshoi Ballet, 2016: as Boris,[57] with Nina Kaptsova, Mikhail Lobukhin and Ekaterina Krysanova
A Hero of Our Time (choreography: Yuri Possokhov), Bolshoi Ballet, 2017: as Pechorin,[58] in "Princess Mary", with Svetlana Zakharova, Kristina Kretova and Denis Savin
