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.

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.

At the premiere of the piece, Mayor John Lindsay presented Hayden with the city's Handel Medallion, praising her as an "extraordinary ballerina who has filled the hearts of her audience with joy".

From 1983 until just a month before her death, she taught at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, where she stressed the importance of the Balanchine technique.