Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Melissa Hayden. January 9, 10, and 12, 1975, 1975.

Author

Hayden, Melissa

Publication

1975

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Armstrong, Jocklyn
• Lambeth, Betty.
• Coleman, Donald.
• Coleman, Stuart.
• Coleman, Jen.

Description

10 sound discs (approximately seven hours and 13 minutes): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (approximately 47 minutes), January 9, 1975. Jocklyn Armstrong speaks with some of Melissa Hayden's students at Skidmore College about Hayden; Melissa Hayden speaks with Armstrong about her students and Skidmore College's dance program; her decision to retire from New York City Ballet including her relationship with George Balanchine and the company; Balanchine's graciousness; her last season including the new work [Cortège hongrois] Balanchine created for her; her partnership with [Jacques] d'Amboise; her final performances; the filming in Germany of Balanchine's Stars and stripes; her transition to teaching, at Skidmore College, including her various connections to Saratoga Springs, New York, and SPAC [Saratoga Performing Arts Center] and her interest in dance education; seeing dance as a child [ends abruptly but continues on disc 2].
• Disc 2 (approximately 51 minutes), January 9, 1975. Melissa Hayden continues to speak with Jocklyn Armstrong about her first exposure to dance and the importance of dance education for children; the program for children she started in Saratoga Springs; her work as an artist-in-residence at Skidmore College including her goals for the dance program [following a break the interview resumes at approximately 18:10]; Hayden, Donald Coleman, and Betty Lambeth discuss [Hayden's] dance education program for local schools, including anecdotes about how children learn; Hayden's approach to rehearsal and performance including as illustrated by a recent student performance.
• Disc 3 (approximately 40 minutes), January 9 and 10, 1975. Melissa Hayden, Donald Coleman, and Betty Lambeth discuss accompanists and music for dance including the importance of both; arts education in elementary schools; Hayden speaks about watching New York City Ballet perform, in particular now and during the Stravinsky festival [this part of the interview ends at approximately 28:20; a new segment of the interview, conducted on January 10, begins after a very brief gap]; Hayden speaks with Armstrong about the challenges of creating a dance program in an academic environment, at a liberal arts college, including how her program fits in with Skidmore's existing curriculum and her role and responsibilities as a guest artist [ends abruptly but continues on disc 4].
• Disc 4 (approximately 43 minutes). January 10, 1975. Melissa Hayden continues to speak with Jocklyn Armstrong about the challenges of creating a dance program at Skidmore College including how to explain the place of dance in an academic environment; more on her teaching and the students; the increase in the acceptance and popularity of dance in the United States including various factors feeding this growth; the prejudices against male dancers in the United States; reminiscences about her experience with Russian ballet dancers visiting the United States [this part of the interview ends at approximately 38:00; the final approximate five minutes of disc 4 consists primarily of the following: Armstrong's description of Hayden's studio with occasional clarifying remarks from Donald Coleman and a Skidmore student; Armstrong's identification of the various locations in which the interview is being conducted (Hayden's studio and Hayden's and Coleman's house); identification of the participating speakers (including Hayden's and Coleman's children, Stuart and Jennifer, and Betty Lambeth, the student teacher); and Armstrong's description of Hayden's and Donald Coleman's house].
• Disc 5 (approximately 44 minutes). January 11, 1975. [Jocklyn Armstrong adds a detail to her description of Melissa Hayden's studio]; Hayden speaks with Armstrong about her family background and childhood; her decision to become a ballet dancer; more on her family and childhood; more on how she became a ballet dancer; leaving Canada in 1944 for New York City to pursue her study of ballet including her emigration-related problems; at Anatole Chujoy's suggestion, auditioning (successfully) for the ballet corps of the Radio City Music Hall [ends abruptly but continues on disc 6].
• Disc 6 (approximately 44 minutes). January 11, 1975. Melissa Hayden continues speaking with Jocklyn Armstrong about her emigration-related problems; continuing to dance at Radio City Music Hall while taking classes; the circumstances as to how she came to join Ballet Theatre [later American Ballet Theatre] including her audition for Antony Tudor; her impression of Tudor at the time; performing at Ballet Theatre including some of her roles; touring including some of the dancers she met; briefly, Lucia Chase; more on performing at Ballet Theatre including an anecdote about Marc Chagall and her costume in The firebird; being made a soloist; her continuing efforts to improve her technique; more on touring; her summer at Jacob's Pillow; her activities when Ballet Theatre was not performing; her first impression of Ballet Society [a predecessor of New York City Ballet].
• Disc 7 (approximately 30 minutes). January 12, 1975. Stuart Coleman (the son of Melissa Hayden and Robert Coleman; age 20), speaks with Jocklyn Armstrong about dance, dancers, and his mother's work.
• Disc 8 (approximately 51 minutes). January 12, 1975. Jennifer Coleman (the daughter of Melissa Hayden and Robert Coleman; age 13) speaks with Jocklyn Armstrong about various topics including her study of ballet, her mother as a dancer and teacher, life in Saratoga Springs compared to life in New York City; the audience response to lecture-demonstrations [at 25:40 minutes into the recording the interview with Jennifer Coleman ends; the recording resumes with an interview of Donald Coleman conducted by Armstrong]. Donald Coleman speaks with Armstrong about ballet and Melissa Hayden including his first time seeing ballet as an adult and subsequent fascination with the art; touring with Ballet Theatre as stage manager; their marriage; Hayden's rejoining of New York City Ballet; briefly, George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, in particular their attitude towards the husbands and mothers of dancers; New York City Ballet when Hayden was a member as compared with now; the tendency toward less individuality in today's ballet dancers; Hayden as a dancer including the roles in which he has liked her best; briefly, more on Balanchine; how he feels about living in Saratoga Springs and the impediments to the success of a dance program in an academic environment.
• Disc 9 (approximately 37 minutes). Melissa Hayden speaks with Jocklyn Armstrong about touring in South America with Alicia and Fernando Alonso, in particular the constant lack of money for expenses; how much she appreciated Alicia Alonso as a teacher; Nicholas Magallanes; leaving the tour and joining the newly-formed New York City Ballet at Balanchine's invitation; Alicia Alonso's reaction; New York City Ballet's first season including her roles; more on the South American tour, in particular the favorable audience response; the restraints on rehearsal space and times at City Center [for Music and Drama]; the company then as compared with today, in particular with respect to the dancers; the varied backgrounds of the company's dancers; the School of American Ballet and its move to the Juilliard School; company classes [ends abruptly but continues on disc 10].
• Disc 10 (approximately 46 minutes). Melissa Hayden continues to speak with Jocklyn Armstrong about company classes; the School of American Ballet including the nation-wide recruiting of students; leaving New York City Ballet and rejoining American Ballet Theatre, in particular her reasons for doing so; some of her roles at American Ballet Theatre; her feelings about Alicia Alonso; dancing while pregnant; her career after her marriage and first child, in particular her return to New York City Ballet; working with George Balanchine; her satisfaction with her career after she returned; the complementary roles of Lincoln Kirstein and Balanchine in creating and sustaining New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet; her feelings about having been part of these organizations; Nicky [Nicholas] Magallane's crucial role in her career.

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.

Subjects

• Hayden, Melissa
• Audiotapes > Coleman, E
• Audiotapes > Lambeth, B
• Audiotapes > Coleman, D
• Skidmore College
• Magallanes, Nicholas
• Dance > Study and teaching
• American Ballet Theatre
• Audiotapes > Coleman, S
• Audiotapes > Hayden, M
• Alonso, Alicia, 1920-2019
• New York City Ballet
• Ballet Society (New York, N.Y.)
• Dance teachers
• Balanchine, George

Note

• Interview with Melissa Hayden conducted by Jocklyn Armstrong on January 9, 10, and 12, 1975, at Hayden's studio and home in Saratoga Springs, New York. The first approximate five minutes of the recording consists of dance students at Skidmore College speaking with Armstrong about Hayden as a teacher and performer. In other parts of the recording, Hayden's husband Donald Coleman, and Betty Lambeth also participate in the discussion (latter part of disc 2; disc 3; end of disc 4; ). In addition, Armstrong separately interviews Hayden's and Coleman's son, Stuart, and daughter, Jennifer (disc 7 and first part of disc 8, respectively) as well as Donald Coleman (latter part of disc 8).
• Title supplied by cataloger.
• Sound quality is good overall. The recording is marred by frequent extraneous noises and occasional short gaps. In addition, there are instances when the speakers talk over each other. However, their voices are almost always easily intelligible.

Funding (note)

• The conservation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-607

OCLC

81938494

Author

Hayden, Melissa, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Melissa Hayden. January 9, 10, and 12, 1975, 1975.

Production

1975

Type of Content

spoken word

Type of Medium

audio

Type of Carrier

audio disc

Event

Recorded by Jocklyn Armstrong 1975, January 9, 10, and 12 Saratoga Springs (N.Y.)

Funding

The conservation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Original Version

Original format: three sound reels (approximately seven hours and 13 minutes); 5 inches; polyester, half-track; 1 7/8 ips.; transferred to wav file and compact disc formats in 2013.

Local Note

For transcript of interview: see *MGZMT 5-607

There are typed notes regarding the recording included in the containers holding the archival originals *MGZTO 5-607 no. 1-2.

Former classmark: *MGZT 5-607

Added Author

Armstrong, Jocklyn, interviewer.

Lambeth, Betty.

Coleman, Donald.

Coleman, Stuart.

Coleman, Jen.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-607