As highly anticipated debuts go, this one had a long time to build up steam. Francesca Hayward was slated to dance her first Swan Lake back in March 2020, the dual role of white swan Odette and black swan Odile being a ballerina’s ultimate prize. Arguably the best British dancer of her generation, Hayward is golden in almost everything she does, full of spontaneous expression and fine detail, a natural actor who excels in making characters human.
But this is a different challenge, as neither of these characters are really human: Odette, the princess trapped in the body of a swan; Odile, an evil sidekick to sorcerer Von Rothbart. As Odette, the main feeling Hayward brings is one of suspension, under a spell and in time – the painfully slow tempo making sense as she falls silently backwards into the arms of Prince Siegfried (William Bracewell). There’s intelligence at work but the result is a certain blankness, although there’s also a hypnotic quality to their pas de deux.
