In the quiet atmosphere of a hotel bar near London's prestigious dance company, Matthew Ball orders a mint tea. The dancer's posture is effortlessly straight-backed, his arms muscular beneath a plain tee. During performances, ballet dancers can appear as powerful deities, yet frequently in person they are petite. This is not true for Ball, whose height is part of his popularity for princely characters and pas de deux work. Possessing delicate traits and intense eyes, there's a hint of Robert Pattinson about him.
A Seamless Rise to the Top
Now 31, Ball is enjoying the peak of a career that has progressed smoothly. Growing up in Liverpool, he encountered minimal teasing for his childhood passion in ballet. Entering the esteemed training institution at 11, he graduated straight into the company and was advanced each year, reaching the highest position of lead dancer in 2018. He has relished taking on meaty dramatic roles, especially the emotional angst found in Kenneth MacMillan's ballets.
"Your lungs are burning, your legs get heavy, but it’s really a mental fatigue."
Ball's upcoming starring role is as himself, in an "Evening With" event aiming to offer behind-the-scenes insights into a performer's art. He will guide the crowd through a role, showing his mental workflow during execution. Yet in lighter ballets, the challenge is significant. "Don Quixote is one of the most demanding technically," he states.
The Mental Game and After the Show Feelings
What about following a performance, when he has succeeded? "It's pretty good," he admits. "But because I'm trying to squeeze all the emotion out of it, and get lost in the character, quite often I do feel self-conscious afterwards. After Mayerling I'm always thinking: God, what must people think?"
Offstage, Ball is thoughtful, polite, and prone to laugh at himself. But a dance maker once remarked on a "kind of suffering in him." Is there? "I am very energetic usually, but I do have a dark side," he reveals. "I kind of enjoy negativity sometimes. I've always felt that doubt has been an instigator for positive change."
Early Drivers and Creative Influences
Ball's tenacity originated in youthful experiences. Not doing well in contests at school made him "driven!" It was motivation to demonstrate he could succeed. Reading the book *Mao's Last Dancer* was a "watershed" moment. "It flipped a switch, it made me go a bit obsessive," he recalls.
The next challenge is making his own choreography. In his view, "there's nothing wrong with." "Challenging the conventions is interesting, but just acting 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 substance, drawing ideas from literature, music, and painting.
Intimate Performance and Personal Partnership
He additionally is interested in staging dance in more intimate spaces. "It was just really exciting," he says of a previous show. "You’re so near to the audience. I felt as if they were realizing: 'That’s a human, and they’re perspiring.'"
Ball has created pieces with his girlfriend, fellow lead dancer Mayara Magri. The level of faith between them is clear. "We tried it out on the beach first," he says of a audacious lift. "It was like Dirty Dancing." The couple are not typically paired on stage at their home company, which is perhaps healthy. "We’re both quite strong-willed people, so it’s not always smooth sailing," he notes. "Yet I feel like we’re each other’s biggest cheerleader."
On Social Media and Physical Image
On Instagram, followers can see videos from his projects and images that showcase a athletic physique. Does he care that the response can be somewhat focused on appearance? Not particularly. "The body is just what we use, so I don’t feel very precious about it," he explains. He compares it to viewing Michelangelo’s David—an object that can be seen on various ways.
Ball characterizes his younger self as "desperate for success." Did it lived up to his hopes? "I am conscious of how life is a different thing to the dreams you had as a child," he reflects. He likely has about ten years of dancing ahead. "I suppose in the future, I want to be a bit more kind with myself."
