Maria Tallchief 1925-2013

Maria Tallchief, died April 11, 2013 at the age of eighty-eight. She was the first grand ballerina produced by this country. Maria Tallchief, a daughter of an Oklahoma oil family who grew up on an Indian reservation. She had her first ballet lessons in Colorado Springs, where the family had a summer home. She also studied piano and, blessed with perfect pitch, contemplated becoming a concert pianist.

However, dance occupied her attention after the family moved to Los Angeles when she was 8.  In 1942, at the age of seventeen, she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo which was the most celebrated ballet company. Balanchine paid increasing attention to Tallchief, and she became increasingly fond of him. They soon married on August 16, 1946. Ms. Tallchief had become a prominent soloist at the Monte Carlo Company. But Balanchine wanted a company of his own.

In 1946, he and the arts patron Lincoln Kirstein established Ballet Society, which presented a series of subscription performances. Tallchief’s mastery and glamour were absolutely crucial in the establishment of New York City Ballet. After she and Balanchine were divorced in 1950, she remained with City Ballet until 1965. However she also took time off to dance with other companies.

In the sixties, Balanchine ignored her. Despite this, she performed with some other companies, and did well in them. It is said that when she danced for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, in the late fifties, she was the highest-paid ballet dancer in the world. In 1965, after she left N.Y.C.B., Tallchief tried to beef up ballet in Chicago, the Lyric Opera there in the mid-1970s and was the artistic director of the Chicago City Ballet, which presented its first season in 1981. More successful as a teacher than as a director, she resigned from the post in 1987.

Among her honors, Tallchief was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1996. Tallchief was a person whom ballet fans and critics looked up to. That was not just because of her superiority as a Balanchine ballerina. She was smart, sophisticated, and witty. Tallchief achieved prominence with Balanchine’s New York City Ballet, dazzling audiences with her speed, energy and fire. 

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/04/postscript-maria-tallchief-1925-2013.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/arts/dance/maria-tallchief-brilliant-ballerina-dies-at-88.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0