Ballet Luminary Matthew Ball on Grueling Roles and Social Media Attention: 'I'm Not Protective About My Body'

In the quiet atmosphere of a hotel bar near London's prestigious dance company, Matthew Ball requests a mint tea. His carriage is effortlessly upright, his limbs defined beneath a plain white T-shirt. On stage, ballet dancers can seem like powerful deities, yet often offstage they are petite. This is not true for Ball, whose tall stature is one reason for his demand for heroic roles 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 experiencing the crest of a career that has progressed smoothly. Raised in Liverpool, he faced little teasing for his childhood interest in ballet. Entering the Royal Ballet School at 11, he graduated straight into the company and was promoted each year, reaching the highest position of lead dancer in 2018. He has loved tackling substantial dramatic roles, particularly the emotional angst found in a famed choreographer's works.

"Your lungs are burning, your legs get heavy, but it’s really a neural fatigue."

Ball's upcoming featured appearance is in a talk, in an "In Conversation" series designed to offer behind-the-scenes perspectives into a dancer's craft. He will walk the crowd through a role, showing his mental workflow during execution. Yet in lighter works, the test is profound. "A classic ballet is one of the most demanding from a skill perspective," he notes.

The Psychological Game and Post-Performance Emotions

What about after a performance, when he has pulled it off? "It feels pretty good," he admits. "However because I'm trying to extract all the emotion out of it, and get lost in the role, quite often I do feel embarrassed afterwards. Following an intense role I'm always thinking: God, what must people think?"

Offstage, Ball is thoughtful, polite, and quick to laugh at himself. Yet a choreographer once observed on a "sense of suffering in him." Is there? "I am very active usually, but I do have a dark side," he confesses. "I kind of enjoy negativity sometimes. I've always felt that negativity has been an catalyst for good change."

Early Drivers and Artistic Inspirations

Ball's tenacity originated in early setbacks. Not excelling in contests at school made him "driven!" It was motivation to prove he could succeed. Discovering the book *Mao's Last Dancer* was a "pivotal" moment. "It changed everything, it made me go a bit fanatical," he remembers.

An upcoming endeavor is creating his own dance works. In his view, "there's nothing wrong with." "Challenging the rules 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 meaning, drawing ideas from books, compositions, and painting.

Close-Up Dance and Personal Partnership

He also is interested in presenting dance in more intimate spaces. "It was just really exciting," he says of a previous experience. "You’re so near to the audience. I felt as if they were realizing: 'That’s a human, and they’re sweating.'"

Ball has made duets with his partner, fellow principal Mayara Magri. The degree of trust between them is clear. "We first practiced on a beach," he says of a audacious lift. "It resembled Dirty Dancing." They are not usually matched on stage at their home company, which is perhaps beneficial. "We’re both quite determined people, so it’s not always smooth sailing," he notes. "But I feel like we’re each other’s biggest cheerleader."

On Social Media and Bodily Image

On Instagram, fans can see clips from his projects and images that highlight a athletic physique. Does he care that the response can be somewhat objectifying? Not particularly. "The body is just what we work with, so I don’t feel very precious about it," he states. He relates it to seeing Michelangelo’s David—an object that can be interpreted on multiple ways.

Ball characterizes his early self as "eager for success." Did it met his hopes? "I am conscious of how reality is a different reality to the aspirations you made as a child," he reflects. He probably has another ten years of dancing ahead. "I suppose in the time to come, I want to be a bit more gentle with myself."