1. Francesca Hayward was born on 4 July 1992 and is a Kenyan-born British ballet dancer and actress.
18 Facts About Francesca Hayward
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Francesca Hayward is a principal dancer in the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in London.
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Francesca Hayward started ballet at age 3, after her grandparents bought her a video of The Nutcracker.
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Francesca Hayward was promoted to First Artist in 2013, Soloist in 2014, First Soloist in 2015 and Principal in 2016.
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In 2012, Francesca Hayward danced a pas de deux from The Flower Festival in Genzano with fellow Royal Ballet dancer James Hay at the Erik Bruhn Competition in Canada.
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Francesca Hayward danced Clara for the first time in The Nutcracker at Covent Garden in 2012.
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Francesca Hayward was featured in the BBC documentary film Dancing the Nutcracker: Inside the Royal Ballet, Her performance as Clara in Sir Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker and in Woolf Works was recorded for DVD by Opus Arte, and the latter was broadcast on BBC.
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Francesca Hayward played the role of Victoria in the film directed by Tom Hooper, as well as singing the song "Beautiful Ghosts" written by Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
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Francesca Hayward returned to performing with The Royal Ballet in May 2019, dancing alongside Cesar Corrales in his ROH debut in Romeo and Juliet.
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Francesca Hayward participated in Misty Copeland's fundraiser, Swans for Relief, by dancing The Swan, in light of the pandemic's impact on the dance community.
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In Royal Opera House's first performance since the lockdown, which was live-streamed on YouTube, Francesca Hayward danced a new piece choreographed by Wayne McGregor alongside Corrales.
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That year saw the release of Audrey, a documentary film about the life of British actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn in which Francesca Hayward played Audrey during her Hollywood years in danced-based "portraits" of Hepburn through her and fellow ballerinas Keira Moore and Alessandra Ferri.
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Francesca Hayward performed at the Coronation Concert in 2023, to mark the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.
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Francesca Hayward has danced as Princess Florine The Sleeping Beauty, Rose Fairy in The Nutcracker, and roles in Infra, Ballo della Regina, Symphony in C, and Within the Golden Hour, and in Robert Binet's immersive work, The Dreamers Ever Leave You.
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Francesca Hayward was awarded the silver medal and Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Genee International Ballet Competition.
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Francesca Hayward won the Best Emerging Artist in 2014 and the Grishko Award for Best Female Dancer in 2016 at the Critics Circle National Dance Awards.
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Francesca Hayward was one of fifteen women selected to appear on the cover of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue, by guest editor Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
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In 2020, Francesca Hayward was recognised as one of the United Kingdom's most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage by being included in the 2021 edition of the annual Powerlist.