Melissa Hayden (1923-2006).Melissa Hayden The name, Melissa Hayden, may refer to:
Malignant tumour of the pancreas. Risk factors include smoking, a diet high in fat, exposure to certain industrial products, and diseases such as diabetes and chronic pancreatitis. Pancreatic cancer is more common in men. . Born in Toronto, Hayden looked like a vibrant all-American girl who just happened to be an absolutely terrific ballerina, with a bravura bra·vu·ra n. 1. Music a. Brilliant technique or style in performance. b. A piece or passage that emphasizes a performer's virtuosity. 2. A showy manner or display. adj. 1. sweep and gusto that was all her own. She will always be known as a Balanchine ballerina, but she didn't start there. At 12, she trained in Toronto with the distinguished local teacher Boris Volkov, then came south to New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. to work with Anatole Vilzak and Ludmila Schollar, and found her first professional job dancing with the ballet corps at Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall New York City’s famous cinema; home of the Rockettes. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2338] See : Theater . However it was in the fall of 1945 when she joined Ballet Theatre that her career took off. Soon afterwards the company's principal choreographer, Antony Tudor, suggested she changed her name from Mildred Herman to Melissa Hayden. In 1948, during a hiatus in Ballet Theatre's activities, she joined a lengthy tour of Cuba and Latin America with the Ballet Alicia Alonso. She was in Argentina when, on the recommendation of Nicholas Magallanes, she received an invitation from George Balanchine to join his newly formed New York City Ballet New York City Ballet, one of the foremost American dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine as the Ballet Society in 1946. . From then on, Balanchine and City Ballet became her primary performing home right up until her retirement from dancing at the age of 50 in 1973. That year Balanchine created the leading role in Cortege Hongrois for her as a going-away gift. Despite her allegiance to City Ballet and her fruitful partnership with Jacques d'Amboise, her relationship with both Balanchine and the company's co-director, Jerome Robbins, was not without its moments of friction, causing her to return to Ballet Theatre for two seasons between 1953 and 1955. The choreographer who suited her best, Balanchine apart, was Frederick Ashton. In 1950 he created ProFane Love for her in his Rimbaud ballet, Illuminations, and later, she danced two of her finest roles, Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee and Sylvia in the full-length Sylvia. She was an Ashton natural. After her retirement, Hayden had a formidable career as a teacher, finally at North Carolina School of the Arts The North Carolina School of the Arts is a well known arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. , where she taught from 1983, giving her last classes only a few weeks before her death. |
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