Mary Anna Ball

Mary Anna Ball (she/her) was born and raised in West Virginia and from the age of four began training with American Academy Ballet (AAB), the school of the Charleston Ballet. She continued her training until joining the company as a corps de ballet member and was promoted to soloist in 2015.

While still dancing full-time with the Charleston Ballet and teaching at AAB, Mary Anna enrolled at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, majoring in Humanities and Latin and minoring in Ancient Greek. She was a member of the Honors College and graduated magna cum laude in 2019. She also was the Vice President of the Beta Upsilon chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, the national honorary collegiate society for classics students, and was the 2018 Maier Latin Scholar. Additionally, Mary Anna was the associate producer of the Emmy Award-winning documentary Andre Van Damme & the Story of the Charleston Ballet.

In 2020, she was awarded a Fulbright Award to study at the University of Roehampton in London and received a MA in Dance Philosophy & History, graduating with distinction in 2021. Her dissertation, “ΠΑΡΘΕΝΟΣ: Reading Virginity, Madness, and Monstrosity in Giselle and the Classics,” won the department’s dissertation prize.

Mary Anna is currently a graduate student at Bryn Mawr College pursuing a PhD in Classics. She is looking forward to working with Second Act and dancers at every level of their career or education.