Melissa Hayden (dancer)

Melissa Hayden
Hayden in 1965
Born	Mildred Hermen April 25, 1923 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	August 9, 2006 (aged 83) Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation	Ballerina
Spouse(s)	Don Coleman
Children	Stuart and Jennifer Coleman
Parent(s)	Jake Herman and Kate (née Weinberg) Herman

Melissa Hayden (born Mildred Herman, April 25, 1923, Toronto; died August 9, 2006, Winston-Salem, North Carolina) was a Canadian ballerina at the New York City Ballet.

Hayden was born in Toronto as the second daughter of Jacob Herman and his wife Kate Weinberg, Jewish immigrants from Russia. The young Mildred was called Millie at home, a nickname she kept for the rest of her life.

In the early 1940s, she moved to New York City to join the ballet corps at Radio City Music Hall. From 1945 to 1947, she was a member of the American Ballet Theatre; she joined the New York City Ballet shortly after its founding in 1948. She performed there many times with noted dancer Jacques d'Amboise. From 1955 until her retirement in 1973, Hayden was the prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet.

Hayden appeared frequently on television, especially The Kate Smith Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1952 she performed as the dance double for Claire Bloom in the film Limelight.

In 1965, she was seen on American TV as the Sugar Plum Fairy in a one-hour German-American adaptation of The Nutcracker. Filmed in 1964, and first shown in the United States by CBS just four days before Christmas 1965, the production, with a heavily altered storyline, featured an international cast of dancers and English narration by Eddie Albert, who was at the time in the first year of the run of Green Acres. Edward Villella and Patricia McBride also starred.

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