Francesca Hayward

English dancer Francesca Hayward is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. She trained at The Royal Ballet School and graduated into the Company during the 2010/11 Season, was promoted to First Artist in 2013, Soloist in 2014, First Soloist in 2015 and Principal in 2016.

She is also starring in "Cats," the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's award-winning musical. Hayward makes up part of the star-studded cast, featuring performers such as Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Dame Judy Dench, James Corden, Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson, Rebel Wilson, Ian McKellen and more.

Hayward studied at The Royal Ballet School 2003–11 and while a student won the 2009 Lynn Seymour Award for Expressive Dance, the 2010 Young British Dancer of the Year and both silver medal and the Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Genée International Ballet Competition. After joining The Royal Ballet she represented the Company at the 2012 International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize and won Best Emerging Artist (2014) and Grishko Award For Best Female Dancer (2016) at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards.

Her repertory with the Company includes Juliet, Alice, Manon, Lise (La Fille mal gardée), the female Principal role in Rhapsody, Titania (The Dream), Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara (The Nutcracker), Princess Aurora and Princess Florine (The Sleeping Beauty), Princess Stephanie (Mayerling), Perdita (The Winter’s Tale), Vera (A Month in the Country), Girl (The Invitation), Justine (Frankenstein) and roles in The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Tarantella, ‘Emeralds’ (Jewels), The Human Seasons, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Giselle, Infra, Ballo della regina, Symphony in C, Asphodel Meadows, Within the Golden Hour and Carbon Life. She created roles in Untouchable, Woolf Works and Multiverse.