English dancer Matthew Ball is a Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined the Company during the 2013/14 Season, promoted to First Artist in 2015, Soloist in 2016, First Soloist in 2017 and Principal dancer in 2018.
Ball was born in Liverpool. He joined The Royal Ballet School aged 11 and graduated through the School awards as a student include at the School’s 2011 Lynn Seymour Competition for dramatic performance, the 2009 Kenneth MacMillan Senior Choreographic Competition and the Gailene Stock and Gary Norman Award for Excellence.
Ball’s roles with the Company include Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Romeo, Armand, Prince Florimund and Bluebird (The Sleeping Beauty), Prince (The Nutcracker), Crown Prince Rudolf (Mayerling), Des Grieux (Manon), Solor (La bayadère), Lensky (Onegin), Albrecht (Giselle), Basilio (Don Quixote), Crosscurrents (Merce Cunnigham). In 2016 he was named Best Emerging Artist at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards and has been nominated twice for Best Male Dancer and Performance. In 2018/19 he appeared as a guest performer with Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake as The Swan/Stranger to critical acclaim in London, Tokyo and New York.
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Matthew has created roles with renowned choreographers Wayne Mcgregor, Crystal Pite, Christopher Wheeldon, Hofesh Shechter, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Kim Brandstrup and Cathy Marston. Dancing alongside and partnering international stars such as Natalia Osipova, Alina Cojocaru, Marianela Nunez and Alessandra Ferri.
In recent years he has branched into different fields working on several fashion and film projects including collaborations with Nick Knight OBE, Gareth Pugh, Erdem and British Vogue. As well as features in King Kong Magazine, Esquire, Hero, Man About Town and campaigns for Marks and Spencer, Bally and Equinox.
Film work includes two dance shorts with Penefather productions co-starring with Francesca Heyward and Natalia Osipova, 'Tybalt' in the feature length film 'Romeo and Juliet Beyond Words'.
Matthew has also begun to create his own work, choreographing a duet for him and his partner (fellow Royal Ballet Principal, Mayara Magri) which has been performed intenationally to acclaim entitle '(Re)Current'. 'Waveform' a trio set to DvoÅ™ák's 'Dumky' Trio was recorded and streamed for The Royal Ballet's 'Draftworks' programme. Matthew also choreographed a solo as part of a commercial campaign for the phone manufacturer 'Xiaomi' shot at the Natural History Museum. Most recently he has collaborated with esteemed composer Guy Chambers and photographer Rhys Frampton on a solo piece inspired by the myth of Icarus which was presented at The Linbury Theatre of The Royal Opera House.
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Education
2005-2013
The Royal Ballet School
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2011-2014
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2007-2010
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