Performing at the top of his game across the ditch
Kiwi dancer Ty King-Wall became the Australian Ballet Company’s youngest principal artist at just 26.
King-Wall has danced since he was a young boy of 7 in Waihi. He was home-schooled to enable a schedule suitable for dancing and gave up sports – namely hockey and gymnastics – so ballet could get 100 per cent of his focus.
His family was extremely supportive. At one point KingWall’s mother worked as a cleaner at the ballet studio in lieu of tuition fees.
After showing real potential for international ballet greatness in his teenage years, King-Wall began to look at opportunities outside New Zealand. Winning an AMP Scholarship helped him make the move to Australia.
‘‘At 16 years old, the expense of moving overseas – and living overseas – it’s not something my family would have been able to sustain,’’ King-Wall says.
King-Wall, now 32, has performed all over the world during his 13-year tenure with the Australian Ballet Company.
After joining the company, his first promotion was to coryphee – a group dancer, essentially part of a chorus – and then he went on to become a soloist, senior artist, and since 2013, principal artist.
‘‘When you’re a young dancer, you are given the opportunity to do principal roles, but the expectation is not there,’’ King-Wall explains.
‘‘People are forgiving. But when you’re a principal artist, a very high level of consistency and standards is expected.
‘‘When performing in a lead role, the audience has come to see you. You’re carrying the story, you’re carrying the ballet.
‘‘As a guy that means I’m usually working with the female
lead and every time you come out on stage, the audience wants to see the best.’’
King-Wall thinks of himself as a traditional ballet dancer who enjoys the classical style.
As such, the favourite roles he has played over the years include Albrecht in Giselle (2015), and, earlier, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake in 2012.
‘‘Swan Lake is what I associated with as a kid growing up in New Zealand,’’ he says.
‘‘That was always the dream in the first place.’’
As for the social aspect of ballet, because it is such an intimate field of work, there is little time for interaction outside of a company.
King-Wall married his longtime girlfriend Amber Scott, who is also a principal dancer, in January this year.
He never worried about ballet being a largely femaledominated industry, – he even believes it’s easier to make it as a male dancer than as a female because there’s less competition.
‘‘If you have the application, discipline and determination, you have a good chance.’’
‘‘If you have the application, discipline and determination, you have a good chance.’’ Ty King-Wall