Quotes from Francesca Hayward

I'm so happy that I ventured out beyond the Royal Ballet - which is my home, and I love it - but I would never have pushed myself outside of my comfort zone.

It sounds a cliche but when I'm on stage I'm at my most relaxed, I feel most like myself. When I have the music and the costumes and everyone else around me, that's when I feel most free.

Even in the early stages of my career I've had to dance with principal dancers. I could have easily freaked out and got nervous, but I think that helped when it came to trying to forget I was doing a scene with Judi Dench.

I believe that when we die, we die - but I believe people's energy stays behind.

It's not a normal every day thing to see yourself with fur, but I loved it.

On stage I have to amplify some of my emotions with my back or make something a little bit more obvious because my audience might be very far away from me, or very high up and find it harder to read what I'm trying to express.

In ballet, it doesn't matter who you are. If you're good, it's such a rare thing, so unusual, that the talent will go wherever you want it to go.

I'm quite relaxed - I know it's important not to get too uptight about things as a dancer, but when it came to my voice I realised that everything you eat, everything you drink affects it.

I feel like when you've got a good outfit on it makes your day, right?

I have so many clothes, but really, I have the same variations of the same thing, usually black jeans, black jumpers, black double-breasted coats.

For people who know about dance, 'Cats' is a musical that really celebrates dance, and there are so many different styles of dance in this film, too. I was really looking forward to being part of that.

When I was younger, in my living room, I used to put 'Cats' the stage musical video on and I used to copy Victoria.

I've loved CATS since I was a child - particularly the role of Victoria, so when the opportunity to audition came about I was very interested.

When I was younger I used to dance to lots of ballet videos.