“I didn’t start dancing out of burning desire for it. I did it because I was a well-behaved little boy,” Matz Skoog told the journalist Ismene Brown in 2022. When he was an eight-year-old in Stockholm, Skoog’s mother suggested he audition for the Royal Swedish Ballet school and, because he was in the habit of doing what his mother asked, he said yes. By the time Skoog was 12, though, “there was never any doubt that I was going to become a dancer”.
His mother clearly had good instincts, as Skoog, who has died of cancer aged 68, went on to become a star principal dancer with London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) in the 1980s. That was only one part of a rich career that included dancing, teaching and directing companies around the world, and then channelling his experience into working as a professional development coach for artists and executives.
Skoog may be best remembered in the UK as artistic director of English National Ballet from 2001 to 2005, a rocky time financially when the company’s existence hung in the balance. In the press, the modest, mild-mannered, bespectacled Swede was pitted against his more outspoken predecessor, Derek Deane (although Skoog later said they were never adversaries). Skoog secured rescue funding for the company, but could not save his own position. Yet in his relatively short tenure, he affected the British dance landscape.
When he joined ENB he argued for artistic risk-taking and promised to raise the company’s “intellectual game”. He revamped The Nutcracker with designs by the satirical cartoonist Gerald Scarfe – too unconventional a choice for some, including ENB’s board. And he immediately set about bringing in young choreographers, evidently sharing his mother’s eye for talent.
He gave the contemporary choreographer Wayne McGregor his first commission for a ballet company, with the piece 2Human (McGregor has been an influential figure in global ballet ever since); and championed choreographers including Christopher Hampson (later artistic director at Scottish Ballet), and Cathy Marston (currently artistic director at Ballet Zurich). “He took a risk on giving me a very early chance,” Marston said. “I felt a great trust from him. He was calm, listened to my ideas and supported them.”
Later, Skoog shifted to become a career coach and a mentor within the arts world, which, Marston said, “was completely in line with the way he had directed, holding the space and drawing out creativity from those he employed rather than dictating particular directions. He was kind, compassionate and gentle in his leadership style, with a deep integrity that felt tangible.”
Before Skoog was a director or coach, however, he was a fine dancer, described by the Financial Times as “a valuable acquisition” when he joined London Festival Ballet in 1979 from Royal Swedish Ballet. (He joked that his relatively short stature among the tall Swedes meant his chance of getting leading male roles was slim, hence the need to branch out.) With his strong classical technique and clean, high jumps, the charismatic performer was soon promoted to principal dancer, and got the leading roles he desired, including in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Romeo & Juliet.
While dancing the role of Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake he met his future wife, Amanda Price, new to London from New Zealand, dancing in the corps de ballet. “He was the star and I was the swan in the back row and everybody said it would never work,“ she told the NZ Listener in 2006. But it did – and they married in 1991. (After dancing, Amanda pursued a successful career in arts administration, and is currently executive director at English National Ballet School.)
As a dancer, Skoog was drawn to more modern repertoire, and it suited him. He originated roles in Glen Tetley’s Pulcinella (1984) and memorably in Christopher Bruce’s powerful Swansong, as one of two quietly menacing guards interrogating a prisoner. “Matz Skoog had a rare gift,” Bruce said. “He was a dancer blessed with a beautiful classical technique alongside an ability to take on contemporary work. He was an instinctive artist who always brought a natural acting ability to a role.”
Skoog was born into an artistic family in Stockholm. His father Nils (known as Nisse) was a jazz musician and artist, his mother, Jane (nee Antoniazzi) an actor and dancer. He also had a brother, Pierre. As well as studying at the Royal Swedish Ballet school, Skoog spent a year in what was then Leningrad when his parents arranged an unofficial exchange programme at the Vaganova school and Kirov theatre.
He returned to Stockholm to join the Royal Swedish Ballet from 1973 until 1979, then danced with London Festival Ballet until 1989 – apart from one season with the contemporary company Nederlands Dans Theatre.
Skoog then spent some years as a freelance dancer, producer and ballet master across Europe, including a year with Rambert in London, before becoming artistic director at Royal New Zealand Ballet in 1996, where he revitalised a company that was in dire financial straits. He brought in more adventurous choreography and oversaw the company’s move to the St James theatre in Wellington.
A decade later, Skoog returned to New Zealand when his wife was appointed RNZB’s general manager in 2005. He taught at the company alongside his nascent coaching work, and expanded into executive coaching when the family returned to Europe in 2015. He is survived by Amanda and their two sons, Sam and Louis, and by his brother, Pierre.
Remembering the making of Swansong, Bruce said: “He was a lovely man to work with because we were able to combine a serious approach with a gentle humour, something I always enjoy in rehearsal as long as I can contain it – I have to admit there were times at ENB when containment was impossible, but I do treasure those precious moments of wonderful, hysterical laughter and Matz wiping tears from his eyes before finally getting back to work.”
• Matz Ingvar Skoog, dancer, artistic director and coach, born 10 April 1957; died 7 February 2026
