Within the quiet ambiance of a hotel bar near London's prestigious dance company, Matthew Ball requests a mint tea. The dancer's posture is naturally upright, his limbs defined beneath a simple tee. During performances, ballet dancers can appear like mighty deities, yet often offstage they are small. Not so Ball, whose height is part of his demand for princely roles and pas de deux work. With delicate features and intense eyes, there's a hint of Robert Pattinson about him.
An Apparent Rise to the Pinnacle
Now 31, Ball is enjoying the crest of a career that has advanced smoothly. Raised in Liverpool, he faced minimal teasing for his childhood interest in ballet. Entering the Royal Ballet School at 11, he graduated directly into the company and was promoted annually, reaching the top rank of principal in 2018. He has loved taking on meaty dramatic roles, especially the emotional angst found in a famed choreographer's works.
"Your breath is short, your legs get heavy, but it’s really a neural fatigue."
Ball's upcoming starring role is in a talk, in an "Evening With" series aiming to offer intimate perspectives into a dancer's craft. He will walk the audience through a part, demonstrating his mental process while performance. Even in more comedic works, the test is significant. "A classic ballet is one of the most demanding from a skill perspective," he states.
The Mental Struggle and Post-Performance Feelings
What about following a performance, when he has succeeded? "It's pretty good," he says. "But because I'm trying to squeeze all the juice out of it, and get lost in the character, quite often I do feel self-conscious afterwards. Following Mayerling I'm always thinking: Wow, what must people think?"
Offstage, Ball is thoughtful, polite, and prone to laugh at himself. Yet a choreographer previously remarked on a "kind of suffering in him." Is there? "I am very active in general, but I do have a dark side," he confesses. "I somewhat enjoy pessimism sometimes. I've always felt that doubt has been an instigator for good change."
Formative Drivers and Artistic Inspirations
His tenacity originated in early setbacks. Not doing well in competitions at school made him "driven!" This became motivation to demonstrate he could succeed. Reading the book *Mao's Last Dancer* was a "pivotal" moment. "It changed everything, it made me go a bit fanatical," he remembers.
An upcoming challenge is creating his own choreography. In his view, "organic movement has value." "Challenging the conventions is compelling, but just pretending that they’re not a thing any more – I don’t know how far you can go with that." He wants his work to be filled with meaning, drawing ideas from literature, music, and painting.
Close-Up Dance and Private Partnership
He additionally favors staging dance in smaller spaces. "It was just really exciting," he says of a previous show. "You’re so close to the audience. I felt as if they were thinking: 'That’s a person, and they’re sweating.'"
Ball has created pieces with his girlfriend, fellow lead dancer Mayara Magri. The degree of faith between them is clear. "We tried it out on the beach first," he says of a daring lift. "It resembled Dirty Dancing." The couple are not typically matched on stage at their main theater, which is perhaps healthy. "We’re both quite strong-willed people, so it’s not always hunky dory," he notes. "Yet I feel like we’re each other’s biggest cheerleader."
Regarding Instagram and Bodily Image
On Instagram, followers can see clips from his projects and photos that showcase a sculpted form. Does he mind that the engagement can be a bit objectifying? Not particularly. "The body is just what we work with, so I don’t feel very protective about it," he states. He relates it to seeing Michelangelo’s David—an object that can be interpreted on multiple ways.
Ball describes his early self as "desperate for success." Did it met his expectations? "I am conscious of how life is a different thing to the aspirations you made as a child," he reflects. He probably has about ten years of dancing ahead. "I suppose in the time to come, I want to be a bit more kind with myself."