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Melissa Hayden


Guest Ange4567

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Guest Ange4567

I was wondering(since there are some well known dancers here).. Has anyone here ever met Melissa Hayden? What is she like?

I read her story in my mom's OLD book from the sixties and it inspired me so much to not give up being serious with ballet just because I started late.. since she started at 15-16. I really want to meet her one day.. It'd mean so much to me to meet the person who has had a huge influence on me.

Also, has anyone ever seen her dance? My mom did.. But she doesn't remember much.

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I saw Melissa Hayden dance only at the end of her career, but she must have been pretty wonderful in her early years. Wasn't 'The Combat' created for her?

I met Ms Hayden several times and even took class from her when she had a studio near Columbus Circle. She was very nice and helpful.

I'll never forget when she came to City Center as a guest teacher for the company I was with. She had blue jeans on and her legs looked so skinny. Well, she took off the blue jeans and underneath she had on tights and a long skirt. It was so cute that her legs looked so skinny in the jeans and she even had a long teaching skirt stuffed in them.

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Much has been written about Melissa Hayden's career with NYCB, but I have fond memories of her early career with Ballet Theater. I always loved her in Jerome Robbins "Interplay" (a score by Morton Gould), in which she danced the PDD. (In those very early days she was known as Millie Herman). I also remember her from the classes we took with Mme. Anderson-Ivantsova and she was most friendly and down to earth. I also remember her from a wild class we took at SAB (with Balanchine)--He turned it into an audition for her entrance into the Company.

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My daughter is a student at NCSA currently in Miss Hayden's classes. She says they are helping her improve so much! The classes aren't easy by any means. Not just her dancing, but also her style of teaching, appears to have been influenced by Mr. Balanchine.

Miss Hayden is a living legend at NCSA and my child is lucky to work with her.

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I've done articles involving Ms. Hayden twice, once in Ballet Review, Fall, 97 (I did a lengthy interview with her about Agon) and then in Dance View, (I believe the issue is Spring, '00) when she coached sections of three Balanchine ballets for the George Balanchine Foundation. The Dance View article has a lot of detail about what she's like to work with. She knows what she wants, and she's one tough cookie.

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Actually Le Combat was first produced by the Ballet de Paris, in London, in 1949, with Jeannine Charrat. I believe that NYCB did it after that, prior to ABT's staging with Lupe Serrano. While Lupe was totally brilliant in this role, I do believe that it was danced first by Charrat and then Hayden before Serrano, but not totally sure of that.

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I can tell you that Miss Hayden has recently had a double hip replacement and appears to be healing well. Her voice is indeed distinctive! She is greatly respected at NCSA, and rightfully so. I am told that when you're doing grands battments at the barre, she will often hold her hand up above your foot (higher, higher!) and challenge you to kick it hard. Miss Hayden seems committed to getting the best possible work from her dancers and is satisfied with nothing less. :D

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