Melissa Hayden (1923-2006).

Melissa Hayden (1923-2006) One of the greatest dancers of American ballet, Melissa Hayden, died in August of pancreatic cancer. Born in Toronto, Hayden looked like a vibrant all-American girl who just happened to be an absolutely terrific ballerina, with a bravura 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 to work with Anatole Vilzak and Ludmila Schollar, and found her first professional job dancing with the ballet corps at Radio City Music Hall.

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.

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, where she taught from 1983, giving her last classes only a few weeks before her death.