Within the hushed ambiance 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 defined beneath a simple white T-shirt. On stage, dancers can seem like powerful deities, yet frequently offstage they are petite. This is not true for Ball, whose height is part of his demand for heroic roles and partnering. With fine features and intense eyes, there's a hint of Robert Pattinson about him.
An Apparent Ascent to the Top
Now 31, Ball is enjoying the crest of a career that has progressed smoothly. Raised in Liverpool, he faced little teasing for his childhood passion in ballet. Joining the esteemed training institution at 11, he moved directly into the troupe and was advanced annually, reaching the highest position of lead dancer in 2018. He has loved tackling substantial characters, especially the emotional turmoil found in Kenneth MacMillan's ballets.
"Your lungs are burning, your legs get heavy, but it’s really a mental fatigue."
His next starring role is in a talk, in an "Evening With" series designed to offer intimate perspectives into a dancer's art. He will walk the crowd through a role, demonstrating his mental workflow during performance. Yet in more comedic works, the test is profound. "A classic ballet is one of the toughest technically," he states.
The Mental Game and Post-Performance Feelings
How does he feel following a performance, when he has pulled it off? "It's pretty good," he says. "However because I'm trying to squeeze all the juice out of it, and get immersed in the character, quite often I do feel embarrassed later. Following Mayerling I'm always thinking: Wow, what must people think?"
In person, Ball is reflective, polite, and prone to laugh at himself. But a choreographer once remarked on a "kind of suffering in him." Is there? "I'm quite active in general, but I do have a dark side," he reveals. "I kind of enjoy pessimism sometimes. I've always felt that negativity has been an catalyst for positive change."
Early Motivations and Artistic Inspirations
Ball's tenacity stemmed from youthful setbacks. Not doing well in contests at school made him "vengeful!" It was fuel 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. For Ball, "organic movement has value." "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 aims his work to be loaded with substance, drawing inspiration from literature, music, and painting.
Intimate Dance and Private Partnership
He additionally favors presenting 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 partner, fellow lead dancer Mayara Magri. The degree of faith between them is clear. "We first practiced on a beach," he says of a audacious lift. "It resembled Dirty Dancing." The couple are not usually paired on stage at their main theater, which is perhaps healthy. "We’re both quite determined people, so it’s not always hunky dory," he notes. "But I feel like we’re each other’s favorite cheerleader."
Regarding Instagram and Bodily Perception
On social media, fans can see clips from his projects and photos that highlight a athletic physique. Does he mind that the engagement can be somewhat focused on appearance? Not really. "The body is just what we work with, so I don’t feel very protective about it," he explains. He compares it to seeing Michelangelo’s David—an object that can be interpreted on various ways.
Ball characterizes his early 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 made as a child," he muses. He likely has another ten years of dancing ahead. "I guess in the future, I want to be a bit more kind with myself."
