🔗 Share this article

Within the hushed ambiance of a hotel bar near London's prestigious dance company, Matthew Ball orders a mint tea. His posture is effortlessly straight-backed, his limbs muscular beneath a plain white T-shirt. On stage, dancers can seem like powerful gods, yet often offstage they are small. This is not true for Ball, whose height is one reason for his demand for princely characters and pas de deux work. Possessing delicate features and piercing eyes, there's a touch of a brooding actor about him.

A Seamless Rise to the Pinnacle

At 31, Ball is enjoying the peak of a career that has advanced seamlessly. Growing up in Liverpool, he encountered little teasing for his childhood interest in ballet. Entering the esteemed training institution at 11, he graduated straight into the company and was advanced each year, attaining the top rank of principal in 2018. He has loved tackling substantial dramatic roles, especially the emotional turmoil found in a famed choreographer's ballets.

"Your breath is short, your legs get heavy, but it’s really a neural fatigue."

Ball's next featured role is in a talk, in an "Evening With" series designed to offer behind-the-scenes insights into a performer's art. He will guide the audience through a role, demonstrating his mental workflow during performance. Yet in lighter works, the challenge is profound. "Don Quixote is one of the toughest from a skill perspective," he notes.

The Mental Game and After the Show Feelings

What about following a show, when he has succeeded? "It feels pretty good," he admits. "However because I'm trying to extract all the emotion out of it, and get immersed in the character, frequently I do feel embarrassed afterwards. Following an intense role I'm always thinking: God, what must people think?"

In person, Ball is reflective, polite, and quick to laugh at himself. Yet a choreographer once remarked on a "kind of suffering in him." Does this exist? "I'm quite energetic in general, but I do have a dark side," he reveals. "I somewhat enjoy negativity sometimes. I've always felt that doubt has been an catalyst for positive change."

Early Drivers and Artistic Inspirations

Ball's determination originated in early setbacks. Not excelling in contests at school made him "vengeful!" It was motivation to demonstrate he could succeed. Discovering the book *Mao's Last Dancer* was a "pivotal" moment. "It flipped a switch, it made me go a bit obsessive," he remembers.

An upcoming challenge is making his own dance works. For Ball, "there's nothing wrong with." "Breaking the conventions is interesting, 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 loaded with substance, drawing inspiration from books, compositions, and art.

Intimate Dance and Private Dynamic

He additionally is interested in staging dance in smaller spaces. "It was just really thrilling," he says of a previous experience. "You’re so close to the audience. I felt as if they were thinking: 'That’s a person, and they’re perspiring.'"

Ball has created duets 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 aren’t typically paired on stage at their main theater, which is perhaps beneficial. "We’re both quite strong-willed people, so it’s not always hunky dory," he notes. "But I feel like we’re each other’s biggest cheerleader."

On Social Media and Physical Image

On social media, followers can see clips from his projects and images that highlight a sculpted form. Does he care that the engagement can be somewhat focused on appearance? Not particularly. "The body is just what we work with, so I don’t feel very precious about it," he explains. He relates it to viewing Michelangelo’s David—something that can be seen on various ways.

Ball describes his younger self as "desperate for success." Has it lived up to his hopes? "I am conscious of how life is a separate reality to the dreams you had as a young person," he reflects. He likely has another decade of dancing left. "I guess in the future, I want to be a bit more kind with myself."