Backstage at The Royal Ballet: Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales

Dasa Wharton took her camera backstage to glimpse Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales preparing for a performance of Romeo and Juliet at The Royal Opera House. She was also there to capture moments of the ballet from the wings, and to take shots from behind the curtain during Hayward and Corrales's triumphant curtain call.

Romeo and Juliet 5 pm

Getting ready

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. She was promoted to First Artist in 2013, Soloist in 2014, First Soloist in 2015 and Principal in 2016.

02 In the dressing room, Romeo and Juliet © Dasa Wharton

03 Quick change rack, Romeo and Juliet © Dasa Wharton

Hayward studied at The Royal Ballet School from 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.

04 Francesca Hayward, makeup and hair, Romeo and Juliet © Dasa Wharton

05 Francesca Hayward, makeup and hair, Romeo and Juliet © Dasa Wharton

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.

Cesar Corrales

Cuban-Canadian dancer Cesar Corrales joined The Royal Ballet at the beginning of the current 2018/19 Season as a First Soloist.

Corrales was born in Mexico City and trained with his parents, Taina Morales and Jesus Corrales, both professional ballet dancers, before attending Canada's National Ballet School.

07 Cesar Corrales, makeup and hair, Romeo and Juliet © Dasa Wharton

08 Cesar Corrales, makeup and hair, Romeo and Juliet © Dasa Wharton

He played the title role in the musical Billy Elliot in Chicago and Toronto from 2010-2011. He danced with American Ballet Theatre Studio Company in 2014. That year, he won the Grand Prix Award and Artistry Award at the Youth America Grand Prix, and soon afterwards joined English National Ballet.

Corrales was promoted to Principal at the ENB in 2017 and his repertory with the company included Ali (Le Corsaire), Nephew (The Nutcracker), Mercutio (Nureyev's Romeo and Juliet), Albrecht (Giselle) Franz (Coppélia) and roles in Fantastic Beings, Le Jeune homme et la mort and In the middle, somewhat elevated. He created the role of Hilarion in Akram Khan's Giselle.

His recent awards include 2016's Emerging Dancer Award and the 2017 National Dance Award for Outstanding Male Performance (Classical) for Le Corsaire.

Romeo and Juliet 7 pm

Act One

Romeo and Juliet 8.25 pm

Act Two

Romeo and Juliet 9.20 pm

Act Three

Romeo and Juliet 10 pm

Curtain call

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.