Fourteen ballet students from the men's class taught by Simon Ball gather around him at the start of their final session. The Elizabeth Township native has returned to teach two weeks of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's Intensive Summer Program. A former student with PBT, Point Park University and Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, he had gone on to win a gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Miss., and the first Rudolf Nureyev Competition, then to become a principal dancer at Boston Ballet and now Houston Ballet.

	Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Simon Ball, principal dancer with Houston Ballet, returns to his hometown to teach Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre students in summer classes. Click photo for larger image. Related coverage School shake-up includes new directors More information For more information about the PBT school, call 412-281-6727 or visit www.pbt.org.

That would be more than enough to inspire admiration in his students. But their hand-painted T-shirts tell a tale that goes a step beyond. Nearly all have some version of "Ball '05 PBT" emblazoned as a tribute to their teacher across the back.

One shirt explains further: "Words of a Great Man." The assumption could be that it refers to the nobility of carriage that has reaped great rewards for Ball. But these students realize that Ball has not only a virtuosic technique, which he displays in an easy flurry of attitude turns, but also a complete inner sense of what goes into a dance.

Ball has always had a down-to-earth connection with those around him. Maybe it stems from his days on his parents' Elizabeth Township farm, where he grew up with sister April, who is currently a rising soloist with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo.

During this summer's visit, accompanied by his wife, Frances Perez-Ball, a corps member with Houston who is expecting their first child, Ball still took time to pitch hay on the farm. "I can't forsake the heritage that got me so strong," he says with a wide grin.

Ball also developed his enormous leg strength not only with ballet classes, but by biking on the winding roads around Elizabeth. He says Houston is a little too flat, so he sometimes heads for the rolling hills of Austin, where it "feels more like home."

Not that he hasn't made a home in Houston since he joined the company in 2003. He is working with the company's prolific Australian artistic director and choreographer, Stanton Welch, who is in demand around the world, as well as being featured in a number of other leading roles in the Houston repertoire.

Ball hooked up with Welch in Boston while the company was performing Welch's "Madame Butterfly" (also seen here with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in April) and where Ball had already danced most of the major classical and contemporary roles.

"I saw an opportunity present itself in Houston," he says. "It was time for a change."

Ball had moved quickly through the ranks in Boston, not only because of his impeccable technique, but primarily because of his gracious partnering skills. It has been said that, even early on, the veteran ballerinas began requesting him.

That's why he was tapped for a PBT pas de deux class as well as the intensive summer program. Ball talks more about his relationship with his ballerina partner and about the dramatic impact on the audience rather than the spectacular lifts that can often draw gasps.

"It's important to make the women look beautiful," Ball emphasizes. "Then, whatever the man can do to look good is secondary. If she looks good, you look good. So whatever I can do ..."

It's not a philosophy shared by all of his peers. But Ball notes that he wouldn't want to deal with the harsh realities of pointe work or the fact that a ballerina can easily break a bone in descending from a lift too quickly.

Ball spends much of his time anticipating what might go wrong, toying with differences in phrasing or dabbling in a little psychology. With so many variables in the stage environment and performance emotions coming into play, he says that it's important to "look each other in the eye" and make a pact before the performance.

"You should actually share something, allow the audience to participate," says Ball. "They have to see the real interaction in 'Romeo and Juliet.' "

During his Pittsburgh stay, Ball primarily tried to give his students a sense of real professionalism while concentrating on partners' sensitivity issues. After all, "it's not about throwing the girls into the air" but about finding the center, both physically and emotionally.

Just as Ball apparently does in all aspects of his life.