Violette Verdy, Fina and Melissa Hayden
Scott Nilsson
Hi, all –
For anyone who hadn’t heard – below is the NYTimes piece on the passing of Melissa Hayden. She was still dancing during the trips to NY/NYCB with Ms. Ann with the crew in ’69, ’70, ’71 or thereabouts, apparently not long before she retired there. She was such a beautiful dancer. Was sad to hear, but glad that she had such a rich and long life.
Brief note on Violette Verdy: she was here (in Atlanta) to present a new piece she choreographed for the Atlanta Ballet in their spring concert and got to chat with her for a bit before the show – she remembered Ann and Columbia and several dancers immediately and was very excited to hear how folks were doing. She was very dear – and choreographed a great piece. She’s still at the ballet department at IU Bloomington, for anyone who’d like to say hi.
Still trying to find Fina – and not having much luck. Have run out of leads at present. Been a somewhat hectic summer, and I’ve temporarily laid the search for Fina and the others aside (we have about forty accounted for, and the names and some information on another fifty or so). If anyone locates anyone else, please send their contact information along, or have them get in touch.
Other brief updates: Tommy Goodlet stopped in to say hi to Philip Bardin at his restaurant on Edisto Island, but P. wasn’t in and Tommy said hi but didn’t leave him contact info – but is apparently doing great (if anyone has contact info for him?)… also, Pearl Potts (still in New Mexico) and Ginny Hunt (still in Columbia) both got to visit Leslie Saunders in Chicago this summer. And Ginny also visited Philip this summer. If anyone is ever coming through Atlanta or the airport here (seems everyone passes through this airport…) – we have met many folks for a hello there during long-enough layovers – would be great to say hi.
Best to everyone – and hope all have had a great summer. Wishing everyone a great year ahead.
Love and hugs –
Scott
Melissa Hayden, a Vibrant Star of New York City Ballet, Dies at 83
By ANNA KISSELGOFF
Published: August 10, 2006
Melissa Hayden, one of American ballet’s greatest ballerinas, whose exultant, dramatic style defied the supposed impersonal mold of the “Balanchine dancer,” making her one of New York City Ballet’s first international stars, died yesterday at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. She was 83.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, said her son, Stuart H. Coleman.
Direct in both her dancing and her views about dance, Ms. Hayden was known for her unmatched blend of individuality and versatility.
“Blunt honesty and generosity in her life and dancing, that was her name,” Jacques d’Amboise, her longtime partner, said yesterday.
Ms. Hayden began her career with American Ballet Theater from 1945 to 1947 and returned there in 1953 and 1954. But essentially she was a charter member of City Ballet, joining the troupe shortly after it was founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein at the end of 1948. She retired in September 1973.
Unlike other Balanchine ballerinas who were about to leave the company, Ms. Hayden was honored with a new ballet that Balanchine created for her. Although that work, “Cortège Hongrois” was considered a pièce d’occasion, it remains in the City Ballet repertory, bringing back memories of Balanchine as a flower boy giving Ms. Hayden a bouquet onstage.
At the same performance, Mayor John V. Lindsay presented her with New York City’s Handel Medallion, which praised her as an “extraordinary ballerina who has filled the hearts of her audiences with joy.”
On the same theme and in his own tribute, Kirstein wrote: “Melissa has been the nearest thing to a ‘star’ in our starless company. We have never encouraged stardom on programs, posters or publicity; managers can’t make stars. The public does.”
In the last 25 years, Ms. Hayden also established herself as an influential teacher. After retiring from performing, Ms. Hayden headed the ballet department at Skidmore College and the School of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, where she was briefly artistic director. She also opened her own school in Manhattan. Since 1983, she had taught at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Among her 6,000 students was Gillian Murphy, now a principal at Ballet Theater.
John Mauceri, the school’s chancellor, said yesterday that Ms. Hayden had taught until a month ago. Her “astonishing 23 years” as a mentor at the school “speaks to her genius, commitment and passion for the dance,” he said.
Passion was certainly a synonym for Ms. Hayden’s dancing. Although her early triumphs in City Ballet were in works with a narrative tinge (William Dollar’s “Duel” and Frederick Ashton’s “Illuminations”), she did not need a dance drama to excel. By the end of her career, she had danced some 60 ballets in the repertory, mainly Balanchine’s plotless works.
Anyone who saw her in Balanchine’s step-packed Tchaikovsky ballet “Allegro Brillante” could be stunned by her outpouring of energetic classical style. At the close, Ms. Hayden seemed as emotionally spent as her audience.
After she returned from Ballet Theater in 1955, Balanchine began to create new works for her, clearly valuing her temperament as he might not have before. A popular favorite is the 1958 “Stars and Stripes,” to music by Sousa. Its pas de deux was created for Ms. Hayden and Mr. d’Amboise, who both embodied its marching-band spirit and good humor.
“The company called us Ike and Mamie,” Mr. d’Amboise said, referring to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife.
Ms. Hayden was born on April 25, 1923, in Toronto, where she began ballet lessons at 12 with the Moscow-trained teacher Boris Volkoff. Seeking further training, she went to New York, where for six months she danced in the ballet corps of Radio City Music Hall. (The troupe was later disbanded.) In one pageant she appeared as a star in a flag representing Oklahoma. When onstage, she said, she would tell herself: “I am Oklahoma. I was admitted to the union on Nov. 16, 1907. I’m a great producer of oil.”
When she joined Ballet Theater in 1945, the choreographer Antony Tudor suggested that she change her name from Mildred Herman to Melissa Hayden.
After Ballet Theater disbanded temporarily, she danced on Broadway and joined other dancers from the company in 1948 for a nine-month tour of Cuba and Latin America by the newly organized Ballet Alicia Alonso. Nicholas Magallanes, who had been in Balanchine’s previous troupes, recommended her to Balanchine for his new company. In Argentina, Ms. Hayden received a telegram from Balanchine telling her to pick up a plane ticket to New York.
Although Balanchine had gone out of his way to recruit her, Ms. Hayden found her path anything but smooth in the first few years. In “Melissa Hayden: Off Stage and On,” the first of her three books, she spoke frankly of the problems a dancer can face.
In her own case, she said, she was torn originally between her love for Balanchine’s works and the greater applause and cheers she received when dancing as a guest with other companies. In “Melissa Hayden,” she wrote: “To dance Balanchine’s ballets successfully, we must subordinate our personalities and blend with all the other dancers onstage. To do this means that the audience will not see us as individuals. In ballets of other choreographers and especially story ballets, the opposite is true.”
Upset that Balanchine did not create new roles for her and would not let her dance in his “Swan Lake” in her early years with the company, Ms. Hayden returned to Ballet Theater. When she came back to City Ballet because she missed the high quality of Balanchine ballets, she and the choreographer reconciled.
As always, Ms. Hayden remained herself. Although Balanchine frowned on his ballerinas’ having children, Ms. Hayden had two with her husband, Donald Coleman, who survives her. Besides her son, of Scarsdale, N.Y., she is also survived by a daughter, Jennifer C. Damsky, of Manhattan, and five grandchildren.
During her career, Ms. Hayden reached a mass audience with frequent appearances on television, especially “The Kate Smith Show.” In 1952 she was the dancing double for Claire Bloom in Charlie Chaplin’s film “Limelight.”
But essentially, she was a versatile dancer at a time when City Ballet was more eclectic in its programs than in later years. New works by choreographers other than Balanchine and Jerome Robbins were the norm. In “The Duel,” Ms. Hayden was the female warrior in a plumed helmet who died a melodramatic death at the hands of her Crusader lover. “The audience screamed after the performance in London.” Mr. d’Amboise said.
“When we all went to London, she was the big star,” he added. “She won the audience.”
Those who saw her in “Illuminations,” Ashton’s meditation on the poet Arthur Rimbaud, will hardly forget her as Profane Love, one foot bare and one in a toeshoe as a turbulent allegorical figure.
At the same time, she was prominent in a host of Balanchine ballets. She was the first and vibrant Titania in his “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the mesmerizing passionate Eurydice in his “Orpheus,” an especially vivacious Sugarplum Fairy in “The Nutcracker” and the virtuosic ballerina in the “Spanish” solo of “Agon.” Finally, she was the womanly and emotional Odette in her coveted role in “Swan Lake.”
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Martha Swope
Melissa Hayden
performing in “Firebird,” about 1967.
Stoner Winslett
Thank you so much for the continuing updates. I did find full contact info on Dorita Strasburger (now known as Kyra Strasburg). Did I send that to you? Stoner
Melanie Person
Hi Scott
I will be in Atlanta from February 7th through February 9th. I will give you details later.
Melanie
From:
Origin...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Origin...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Scott Nilsson
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2006 3:11
AM
To: Original Columbia
City Ballet: Online Forum
Subject: Violette Verdy, Fina and
Melissa Hayden
Hi, all –
scott nilsson
Scott Nilsson
Hi, Melanie - Look forward to the details and to getting to see you when you’re here! Hope things are going well in NY (it was great to be back there last spring – the new MMA is amazing! – we love to ring you up the next time we’re back). Best always – Scott
