Magda Saleh

Magda Saleh (; 2 April 1944 – 11 June 2023) was an Egyptian ballet dancer.

Biography Saleh was born in Cairo in 1944, the daughter of an Egyptian father and Scottish mother. She studied English literature before attending the Higher Institute of Ballet and receiving a scholarship to attend the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Upon her return to Egypt, she became a founding member of the Cairo Opera Ballet Company. In 1966, she staged her first performance, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai. The performance was viewed by President Gamal Abdel Nassar, who was so impressed that he awarded her the Order of Merit and sent her and her co-stars on a tour of Egypt, notably in Aswan, where the Aswan Dam was being built. By the end of the 1960s, she had become the most notable ballerina in Egypt, having been invited to perform at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Mariinsky Theatre.

In 1971, the Khedivial Opera House burned down, which dealt a fatal blow to Saleh's ballet company. Additionally, President Anwar Sadat severed ties with the Soviet Union. In response, many Egyptian ballerinas emigrated to Europe, Russia, or the United States. Saleh chose to settle in the latter. She received a master's degree in modern dance from the University of Southern California and a PhD from New York University, for studies in traditional Egyptian dance.

After Josephson's death, Saleh returned to Cairo to be closer to family, where she died on 11 June 2023, at the age of 79.