FAROUK RUIMATOV

Farouk Ruzimatov

Farouk Ruzimatov (Farukh Ruzimatov) (born June 26, 1963 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, before URSS) is a Russian ballet dancer, the Artistic Director for ballet in Mikhailovsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg. He was formerly the Principal Dancer and Assistant Artistic Director of The Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. before Ruzimatov entered the Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) Vaganova Academy in 1973 and upon his 1981 graduation began dancing with the Kirov Ballet and became a principal dancer in 1986.

His repertoire includes such roles as Albrecht in Giselle, Solor in La Bayadère, Ali in Le Corsaire, Prince Desire in The Sleeping Beauty, The Prince in The Nutcracker, Siegfried in Swan Lake, Basil in Don Quixote, and many others. He has also performed as Principal Guest Artist with American Ballet Theater.

AwardsHonored Artist of Russia (1995)
People's Artist of Russia (2000)
He was Silver Medallist of the Sixth Varna International Competition (1983)
He was awarded a special diploma by the Paris Academy of Dance.
Prizewinner of Baltika prize (1998)
Prize Bemois of Dance

PartnershipsRuzimatov has had many successful partnerships, but the two most well known are probably his collaboration with Yulia Mahkalina in Kirov productions of Giselle and La Bayadere, and he partnered Larissa Lezhnina in her Kirov debut as Aurora in the 1989 production of The Sleeping Beauty. He went on to partner her in Diana and Acteon, but as she left the Kirov to become a soloist for the Dutch National Ballet in 1994, their promising collaboration was cut short.