Side by side

A few weeks ago, I was surprised to find two obituaries of interest to me in the New York Times; surprised, because I don't normally look at the obituaries. In a parallel to my dance/science dichotomy, the two notable people were Melissa Hayden, a dancer, and James Van Allen, a physicist. I make a few remarks about the former here, and a few about the latter on my science blog.

Here is a quote I liked from "Melissa Hayden, a Vibrant Star of New York City Ballet, Dies at 83" by Anna Kisselgoff (August 10, 2006):

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.”

I never met Ms. Hayden, but someone I danced with in high school studied under her at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Ms. Hayden performed as the dance double for Claire Bloom in the film Limelight (1952). Claire Bloom was in Mighty Aphrodite, written by Woody Allen, who also wrote The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, of which Dan Aykroyd was a cast member. Dan Aykroyd shows up in the credits of She's Having a Baby. And who starred in She's Having a Baby? Kevin Bacon!