Within the hushed atmosphere of a lounge near London's Royal Ballet, Matthew Ball requests a mint tea. The dancer's posture is effortlessly upright, his arms defined beneath a plain tee. During performances, dancers can seem like mighty gods, yet frequently offstage they are small. Not so Ball, whose height is one reason for his popularity for heroic characters and partnering. Possessing fine features and intense eyes, there's a touch of a brooding actor about him.
An Apparent Rise to the Pinnacle
Now 31, Ball is experiencing the crest of a career that has advanced smoothly. Growing up in Liverpool, he faced little ridicule for his childhood interest in ballet. Joining the Royal Ballet School at 11, he moved directly into the company and was advanced each year, attaining the top rank of principal in 2018. He has loved tackling meaty characters, especially the psychological angst found in Kenneth MacMillan's works.
"Your breath is short, your legs get heavy, but it’s really a neural fatigue."
His next starring appearance is in a talk, in an "Evening With" event designed to offer intimate perspectives into a performer's art. He will walk the audience through a part, demonstrating his cognitive process while performance. Yet in lighter ballets, the challenge is significant. "Don Quixote is one of the toughest from a skill perspective," he states.
The Mental Game and Post-Performance Emotions
How does he feel following a show, when he has succeeded? "It feels pretty good," he says. "However because I'm trying to extract all the juice out of it, and get immersed in the character, frequently I do feel embarrassed later. After Mayerling I'm always like: God, what must people think?"
In person, Ball is thoughtful, mild-mannered, and quick to laugh at himself. But a dance maker once remarked on a "kind of suffering in him." Is there? "I'm quite active usually, but I do have a dark side," he reveals. "I somewhat enjoy negativity sometimes. I've always felt that negativity has been an instigator for positive change."
Formative Drivers and Artistic Influences
His tenacity originated in early experiences. Not doing well in contests at school made him "vengeful!" This became 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 fanatical," he recalls.
The next endeavor is creating his own dance works. In his view, "there's nothing wrong with." "Breaking the conventions is interesting, but just pretending that they’re not a reality 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 Personal Dynamic
He also is interested in staging dance in more intimate spaces. "It was just really thrilling," he says of a previous show. "You’re so close to the audience. I felt as if they were realizing: 'That’s a person, and they’re sweating.'"
Ball has created duets with his girlfriend, fellow lead dancer Mayara Magri. The degree of trust between them is evident. "We tried it out on the beach first," he says of a audacious lift. "It was like Dirty Dancing." The couple aren’t typically paired on stage at their main theater, which might be healthy. "We’re both quite determined people, so it’s not always hunky dory," he notes. "Yet I feel like we’re each other’s biggest supporter."
On Social Media and Physical Image
On Instagram, fans can see videos from his projects and images that showcase a athletic physique. Does he mind that the response can be somewhat objectifying? Not particularly. "The body is just what we work with, so I don’t feel very protective about it," he states. He compares it to seeing Michelangelo’s David—something that can be seen on various ways.
Ball describes his younger self as "desperate for success." Did it met his expectations? "I feel very aware of how reality is a different thing to the aspirations you had as a child," he reflects. He probably has another decade of performing left. "I suppose in the future, I want to be a bit more gentle with myself."
