William Bracewell, a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet and Opera in London, is tougher than he looks.

Getting to his rank has been a painful and slow road filled with scars. He joined the ballet company in 2017 as a soloist and was swiftly landing roles in “Romeo and Juliet” and “Yugen.” But it all came to a halt in 2019 when he had a disc herniation in his lower back.

“Sometimes people live with them for their entire careers or life and they don’t cause any symptoms, but mine started pressing on the nerve and it popped out so far as pressing on the nerve down my left leg, which shut off the power to my left leg,” says Bracewell in his calming voice over tea after a day’s rehearsal.

He went down the surgical route after six months of on-and-off rest and rehab. It took Bracewell a year to get back up properly and three years for him to feel like his old self.

The Welsh ballet dancer lost all his fitness and muscle mass. He started again from block zero.

“Rehabilitating from an injury I would say is way harder than dancing full time. I remember the awful bike sessions, where sometimes I’d vomit afterward because I was so unfit that my body didn’t have the capacity to deal with how far I wanted to push it,” Bracewell recalls.

It’s in his nature as a ballet dancer to be resilient and push through. He returned to the stage with smaller roles in late 2020 as a soloist, but the emotional damage was already done. 

Bracewell was forthcoming about asking for help and started seeing a psychotherapist, who helped him understand why he wanted to dance and why he would put his body through such a degree of immense pain.

“For me, dance is a way of communicating with other people and understanding myself, but up until that point, I hadn’t been able to communicate in other ways. Dancers are very in tune with their emotions, but the vocal aspect is less practiced. I can’t sustain that in life because I can’t be with my partner and show them how I feel through expressive dance,” he says.

His ambitions and spirits were still high despite the sudden changes. There were so many ballets he wanted to dance in and choreographers to collaborate with.

Bracewell persevered and was promoted to principal at the Royal Ballet and Opera at the age of 31 in 2022. He’s the first Welsh dancer to hold that position at the company.

“It happened a bit late [for me] because normally that might happen to someone at the age of 26. I generally see my career as being a bit of a late bloomer,” he says.

It was no easy feat for Bracewell to get to his current rank. He took on principal roles for two seasons, which gave him an inkling he might get the top position soon.

Kevin O’Hare, the director of the Royal Ballet, says that Bracewell has a “unique and charismatic presence onstage. His seamless execution of steps and elegance of line form but one part of his distinctive quality; how his technique is imbued with expressive feeling is what makes his performances so potent.

“He is a compelling actor, involving himself fully with every role, and a consummate partner, always presenting his ballerinas so they shine,” he adds, praising his positive attitude that makes him a “fantastic role model for aspiring dancers.”

Bracewell is now a regular on the Royal Ballet cast sheet with roles in “Onegin,” “Cinderella” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” as well as starring in contemporary pieces by Kyle Abraham, Pam Tanowitz and Wayne McGregor.

“He’s an incredible artist and collaborator. Not only a skilled technician in the demanding form of ballet but also a rare dancer who can expertly balance their performative prowess with emotional intensity. William always dances from the soul,” says McGregor, who has cast the dancer in “The Dante Project” and “MaddAddam.”

Bracewell is an in-demand principal and his summer schedule is usually packed with trips to perform in Japan, New York and Italy. He has found that it works in his favor since his surgery. 

“I just can’t physically take five weeks off as my body would decondition too far,” he says.

He enjoys being on his feet and always has a camera with him, even during a performance. For instance, when his character Lensky died in act two of “Onegin,” Bracewell spent his free time shooting his colleagues in action.

Bracewell has a philosophical outlook on life, perhaps because he’s played so many fallen characters. In his downtime, he describes himself as an “old grandpa” who loves gardening and ceramics. He has a little studio set up in the bottom of his garden with a wheel and a kiln. He’s been making his ceramics for seven years and often gifts them to his family and friends for birthdays and Christmas.

But it’s putting his fingers in soil that gives him gratification. 

“I love the existential connection that it gives me and just seeing the life cycle is really grounding. I find that on a bigger scale, gardening connects me to humanity and the wider world — it just puts your problems into perspective a little bit,” says Bracewell.

Even with his gentle, windswept hair and soothing demeanor, he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty and get to work — onstage or in the garden.