What three words does a ballet dancer live by? “Don’t look scared,” Francesca Hayward tells me, fervently, of the maxim that guides her. “Having that bit of armor is sometimes really helpful. People who can smell fear might exploit it. Look strong – even if you’re not feeling strong on the inside.”

It’s a piece of tough love that Hayward remembers being given while she was a student at London’s Royal Ballet School – and the words have stuck with her. She was labeled early on as one of Britain’s most exciting new talents in the ballet world and, now, at 29, her repertoire includes renowned productions of Gisele, The Nutcracker and Rhapsody. Still, that doesn’t mean that she is immune to trepidation, even if she doesn’t always show it. “I’ve become more nervous [with age],” she shares.

This was especially true during a 2020 performance of Morgen, a new pas de deux that she performed alongside her boyfriend and fellow dancer Cesar Corrales. “I felt more exposed somehow. I’m really not sure why, because, on the first show, everyone was nearly crying [with joy] before we even stepped onstage. The announcement went out: ‘Welcome to the Royal Opera House’ – and everyone stood up and started clapping for about five minutes,” she recalls. “I knew that everyone was wishing us well but, somehow, it just felt a bit like an exam. The silence, the space that wasn’t filled out [due to social-distancing measures]… It felt as if people were scrutinizing us somehow, rather than watching a show.”

There’s something refreshing about Hayward’s candidness. Sitting in her London apartment, she exudes a down-to-earth aura that feels more like having a heart-to-heart with a friend. This frank realness could come from her earnest beginnings of auditioning without expectation. “I don’t come from a dance family, so my whole career has been about just giving it a go and seeing what happens.”

She remembers her first breakthrough moment, aged 17, at the end of her student training. “When there are injuries in the Royal Ballet, they use students to fill the spots. I was getting a few of those opportunities: I was more in the company than I was at school! It’s the best kind of training you can possibly have because you’re seeing what it’s like to be a professional,” says Hayward. “They would throw me into all these really scary situations, telling me, with two hours’ notice, I had to do a really difficult part onstage in the show later that night and learn it super-quickly. That’s when I realized it was in my grasp. The dream that I wanted was so close. I just wanted it more than anything.” She gives thanks to Kevin O’Hare, director of the Royal Ballet, who she says saw her potential. “He plucked me out of the water very quickly and said, ‘You can do this.’”

Hayward was born in Nairobi, Kenya, then moved to West Sussex when she was two years old and lived with her grandparents. After being a junior associate with the Royal Ballet from the age of nine (in a program run for children alongside regular dance classes), she entered the Royal Ballet School at 11 and later progressed to the Royal Ballet Upper School. In 2012, Hayward danced a pas de deux from The Flower Festival in Genzano and took the role of Clara in The Nutcracker at London’s Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. This year, she is set to reprise the role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, a part she first danced seven years ago. “I’ve danced Juliet more than three times, so it really is in my body,” says Hayward. “Now, I’m just concentrating on trying not to go on autopilot and do what I did before.”

She’s also in rehearsals for her principal role in Wayne McGregor’s The Dante Project, a major creative collaboration that is part of events marking the 700th anniversary of the poet Dante Alighieri’s death. “What’s always really difficult when you’re creating a new ballet is that the choreographer will want to create loads of new material and then might select only 10 percent of what you’ve done. It’s a big process,” says Hayward. Working with the multi-award-winning choreographer has forced her to be ultra-mindful and to trust in both of their talents. “McGregor will ask you to put your head over there and your leg here, and you have to ask him to point – because you don’t understand how you’re physically going to do it. But you just have to trust him. He works so quickly and creates so much.”

As a self-described “disorganized” person, Hayward has strict rituals that keep her focused when she’s working. These include walking to the theater alone, eating bland food before a show and listening to the same music on repeat. “I listen to the music of the show that I’m going to do. And when I’m getting ready and doing my makeup, I listen to Bob Dylan. That seems to really calm me down,” she says.

For a job that requires so much physical discipline, it was difficult to adjust during the first Covid-19 lockdown – something she has only fully realized in hindsight. “You can’t do ballet at home – it just doesn’t work, unless you’ve got an amazing studio with a big space and big floor. So I got really fed up. I stopped for a long time, but I could see all my friends on Instagram being really dedicated and doing workouts in the park.”

Hayward eventually got herself back into the physicality to perform but found a different challenge when she returned to the stage for a delayed performance of Swan Lake in late 2020. “I remember being super-nervous for the first show and having all these thoughts in my head, like, ‘Am I smiling enough?’” Was it a result of having to wear masks for rehearsals in the studio? “It’s not like we grin all the time, but I was onstage thinking, ‘Do I look present?’ I had forgotten what to do with my face.”

Hayward has garnered a larger public platform than most ballet dancers, particularly since she took the role of Victoria the White Cat in the 2019 screen adaptation of Cats, alongside an assortment of Hollywood stars that included Judi Dench, Idris Elba and Jennifer Hudson. I ask how she has dealt with the rising profile. “I can go about my daily life just the same,” she considers. “If I do get recognized, it always seems to happen when I’m out with my cousin! She thinks that is my constant reality,” she says, laughing. “The occasional ballet student might recognize me, but that’s about it.”

Beyond her own ambitions, Hayward is interested in shifting public perspectives of ballet through education. “Sometimes, people don’t know anything about the ballet world – and, if they do, they usually have very old-fashioned views,” she says of the perceptions that she is often met with. “I’m passionate about trying to educate the general public. For me, this ties into everything. It ties into diversity and how we can improve on imbalance.”

“I think it is ingrained into ballet dancers from our very first class that we should be so grateful to be here, that we are so lucky doing what we’re doing. But we should be able to speak out,” says Hayward.

When it comes to life off-stage, Hayward says she spends a lot of her downtime watching TV or at the cinema. But her big love is fashion and – while her everyday look usually comprises “a big black sweater and a pair of black boots” – she is always excited to dress up for an occasion. “Aside from ballet, it’s the only thing that gives me that kind of joy.” In another reality, she might have gone into a career in fashion. “I spend a lot of time online looking at clothes and, when I was younger, I wondered if I would be a fashion designer. Now, knowing what goes into it, it’s a massive job to be creative all the time.” She enjoys playing unofficial stylist to her friends, though. “I’m always looking at someone and thinking, ‘What could I find for them?’”

As for the future, Hayward says she would love to do more in TV and film – but her heart is firmly set on ballet for the foreseeable. “I can’t ever retire until I know that I literally gave it 100 percent,” she says. “I think I’ve got further to grow and I have to give it my everything. That’s definitely my main focus.”