{"id":622,"date":"2017-01-07T14:31:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-07T14:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=622"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:29","slug":"royal-ballets-principal-ballerina-francesca-haywards-sugarplum-fairy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2017\/01\/07\/royal-ballets-principal-ballerina-francesca-haywards-sugarplum-fairy\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Ballet&#8217;s Principal Ballerina Francesca Hayward&#8217;s Sugarplum Fairy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KctbCHMNvA4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>More on Ms. Hayward:<br \/>\n<strong>Francesca Hayward, interview: &#8216;I just want always to move people. If someone cries, that\u2019s brilliant&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by Lyndsey Winship<\/p>\n<header id=\"gigya-share-btns-1_gig_containerParent\">\n<div id=\"gigya-share-btns-1\">\n<div class=\"gig-bar-container gig-share-bar-container\">\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div class=\"gig-button-container gig-button-container-count-right gig-button-container-share gig-button-container-share-count-right gig-share-button-container gig-button-container-horizontal\">\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<figure class=\"featured-media medium-width\"><picture title=\"36dance2903a.jpg\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/styles\/article_medium\/public\/thumbnails\/image\/2016\/03\/29\/11\/36dance2903a.jpg 1x\" media=\"(min-width: 620px) and (max-width: 929px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/styles\/article_large\/public\/thumbnails\/image\/2016\/03\/29\/11\/36dance2903a.jpg 1x\" media=\"(min-width: 930px) and (max-width: 1239px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/styles\/story_large\/public\/thumbnails\/image\/2016\/03\/29\/11\/36dance2903a.jpg 1x\" media=\"(min-width: 1240px)\" \/><\/picture>\n<figure style=\"width: 1240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"36dance2903a.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/styles\/article_small\/public\/thumbnails\/image\/2016\/03\/29\/11\/36dance2903a.jpg\" alt=\"36dance2903a.jpg\" width=\"1240\" height=\"827\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A precocious talent: Francesca Hayward as Alice in Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"article-wrapper clearfix\">\n<div class=\"main-content-column\">\n<div id=\"gigya-share-btns-2_gig_containerParent\" class=\"text-wrapper\">\n<p>Like most dancers, Francesca Hayward \u2014 Frankie to her friends \u2014 is smaller in real life than she looks on stage. We meet between rehearsals at the Royal Opera House; she is dressed in a tracksuit and the moon boots dancers wear to keep their feet warm, a diminutive 5ft 2ins. With cute features, bright eyes and perfect caramel skin, she looks young \u2014 which at 23, she is \u2014 and yet Hayward has a calm self-possession about her. She looks at you with an unshrinking gaze; she\u2019s polite, direct and switched on. She just seems so sorted.<\/p>\n<p>You can see why Royal Ballet director Kevin O\u2019Hare has complete confidence in her, casting her in roles usually given to more experienced ballerinas, notably the complex anti-heroine Manon (\u201cShe convinced and excited every step of the way,\u201d said the Telegraph) and the fiendishly tricky Rhapsody (\u201cAstonishing,\u201d according to the Observer). She\u2019s an expressive dancer brimming with musicality and a beautiful sense of line, and she\u2019s being touted as Britain\u2019s next great ballerina. Choreographers are jumping to put her in their ballets, from Liam Scarlett\u2019s Frankenstein, opening in May, to Christopher Wheeldon\u2019s The Winter\u2019s Tale, in which she\u2019s dancing the role of Perdita next month.<\/p>\n<p>Hayward\u2019s career is rocketing along, and she acknowledges that\u2019s maybe not the norm for the millennial generation. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing talking to people of my age now who are at university studying and they still don\u2019t know what they want to do,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s mind-boggling to me because I\u2019ve never questioned it, I\u2019ve never thought about doing anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hayward has known what she wanted to do since the age of three when her grandparents, who brought her up\u00a0in Sussex, bought a video of The\u00a0Nutcracker. (Hayward was born in Nairobi to an English father and Kenyan mother \u2014 the latter she no longer sees \u2014 and moved to England aged two.) Grandpa was soon sent out for more ballet videos. \u201cI\u2019d put one on in the morning, for two hours, and then dance to a whole ballet before lunch,\u201d Hayward recalls. \u201cAnd then another one after lunch. I\u2019d lock myself in the living room. It just made sense. Even at three years old. And that seems crazy but it just spoke to me, it felt really natural. I couldn\u2019t stop doing it and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"dnd-widget-wrapper context-sdl_editor_representation type-image\">\n<div class=\"dnd-atom-rendered\">\n<div class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"36dance2903b.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/styles\/story_medium\/public\/thumbnails\/image\/2016\/03\/29\/11\/36dance2903b.jpg\" alt=\"36dance2903b.jpg\" width=\"564\" height=\"846\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dnd-caption-wrapper\">Leading lady: in Romeo and Juliet with Matthew Golding<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>She started dance lessons and forced her friends to do ballet when they came round to play (\u201cI\u2019m still apologising to them now\u201d). She was accepted into the Royal Ballet School aged 11, an experience she thought would be \u201clike a sleepover every night\u201d but turned out to be a fast-track to growing up.<\/p>\n<p>Hayward graduated into the Royal Ballet company in 2010 after winning the Young British Dancer of the Year competition. She was quickly promoted and picked out to dance roles above her rank, becoming First Soloist last year. When did it hit her that she was actually living the life she dreamt of as a three-year-old?<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-block inline-block-related-single inline-block-left\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h2>Francesca Hayward&#8217;s spectacular leap from young fan to Juliet star<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhen I did Romeo and Juliet and The Nutcracker,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause they were two of my favourites in my living room. I got really emotional actually \u2014 I\u2019m not a very emotional person \u2014 but I stepped on for Juliet and I thought I was going to cry before I\u2019d even begun. I told myself, \u2018No, save it for the end!\u2019 I was just, \u2018Oh wow, this is it, Opera House, Royal Ballet, me. This is actually happening\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It may be the career she\u2019s been preparing for her whole life but there are a few things that have taken Hayward by surprise. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect to be so tired sometimes on stage,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are moments when you\u2019re so tired you could pretty much collapse. I\u2019ve actually seen stars.\u201d Then there are the cramps. \u201cFoot cramps, cramps everywhere, while you\u2019re on stage\u00a0and trying to hide it. It doesn\u2019t feel elegant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She\u00a0follows an athlete\u2019s carbs-and-protein diet to have enough energy for the performance (and then hits the jelly babies just before the show for a sugar rush) but getting through it is mainly all in the mind, she\u2019s learnt. \u201cYour body\u2019s telling you you can\u2019t do it but in your head you go, \u2018It\u2019s fine, it\u2019s OK, I\u2019m going to get there.\u2019 My biggest catchphrase is: just do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"dnd-widget-wrapper context-sdl_editor_representation type-image\">\n<div class=\"dnd-atom-rendered\">\n<div class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"36dance2903c.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/styles\/story_medium\/public\/thumbnails\/image\/2016\/03\/29\/11\/36dance2903c.jpg\" alt=\"36dance2903c.jpg\" width=\"564\" height=\"846\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dnd-caption-wrapper\">Rocketing career:\u00a0Hayward<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When she\u2019s performing, the most important thing for Hayward is telling the story. \u201cI just want always to move people at every performance,\u201d she says. \u201cIf someone cries, that\u2019s brilliant.\u201d She goes deep into research for her roles, reading books and historical accounts, for example, for the real-life character of Princess Stephanie of Belgium in the ballet Mayerling, a role she found difficult to get to grips with. \u201cHer personality was completely different from mine. In the pas de deux she\u2019s being beaten around by her husband, he\u2019s violent, throwing her everywhere, and she\u2019s kind of letting it happen. And for me that was really hard, it\u2019s against everything that I am to let someone walk all over you like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-block inline-block-quote ines_blockquote inline-block-right\">\n<blockquote><p>&#8216;I just want people to enjoy watching me&#8230; I\u2019d like to be remembered a little bit for my performances.&#8217;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s true that while Hayward smiles and giggles as she chats, you also get the feeling she\u2019s no pushover. \u201cThere are times to hold your breath and times to stand up for yourself,\u201d she says. \u201cI have learnt that if you don\u2019t ask, you don\u2019t get.\u201d Hayward insists that in real life she can be quite shy but when you watch her on stage she seems supremely confident, sailing through the steps with serene ease and composure. She doesn\u2019t suffer from nerves, she says; in fact, the bigger the role, the less nervous she gets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel in control when I\u2019m on stage,\u201d says Hayward. \u201cSomething kicks in and I feel calm.\u201d That tunnel vision doesn\u2019t work so well when she\u2019s not in character. \u201cIf it\u2019s Frankie in a tutu, rather than Frankie being another person, then I get a bit more nervous because you haven\u2019t got anything else to hide behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hayward lives in Stoke Newington with her boyfriend, another Royal Ballet dancer, although she doesn\u2019t want to disclose who \u2014 \u201cI think there needs to be a bit of privacy\u201d \u2014 and likes a night in the pub or on the sofa with a history documentary or a war film.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s also into medical programmes as they put things into perspective. \u201cOne of my friends has just become a junior doctor and sometimes I feel completely silly talking to her about my life and my working day when compared to her job it suddenly seems tiny and insignificant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More on Ms. Hayward: Francesca Hayward, interview: &#8216;I just want always to move people. If someone cries, that\u2019s brilliant&#8217; by Lyndsey Winship [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[104,32,38,100,106,108,107,105,82],"class_list":["post-622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-zine","tag-balks-in-ballet","tag-ballet","tag-black-ballerina","tag-francesca-hayward","tag-juilet","tag-principal-ballerina","tag-sugarplum-fairy","tag-swan-lake","tag-the-royal-ballet"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Francesca-Hayward-after-her-de\u0301but-in-Frederick-Ashtons-Rhapsody-Royal-Ballet-500x500.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions\/627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}