Tallchieva? Never!

April 13, 2013 12:38 AM

"If anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away." American ballerina Maria Tallchief died Thursday.

A native of Oklahoma, she was descended from the Osage Nation. She began dancing at a young age and studied with another formidable woman of ballet, Bronislava Njinska. At age 17, she joined the Ballets Russes and went on to become the first-ever prima ballerina of Native American descent.

During the course of her 88 years, she:

• Danced in Agnes DeMille's Rodeo
• Married choreographer George Balanchine
• Reigned as the New York City Ballet's first-ever prima ballerina
• Became famous for her performance of The Firebird as choreographed by Balanchine with scenery and costumes by Mark Chagall
• Played Anna Pavlova on film in a biopic starring Esther Williams
• Danced "The Four Moons" along with four other "Oklahoma Indian Ballerinas" and was memorialized in an outdoor sculpture installation in Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Refused to change her Osage surname to Tallchieva despite pressure to adopt a Russian-sounding stage name
• Founded the Chicago City Ballet
• Received a Kennedy Center Honor and National Medal of the Arts and was named Princess Wa-Xthe-Thomba ("Woman of Two Worlds") by the Osage tribe

Her sister, Marjorie Tallchief, was also a prima ballerina.

posted by mynameisluka (18 comments total)

Such grace.

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posted by trip and a half at 12:44 AM on April 13, 2013

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posted by susanbeeswax at 1:03 AM on April 13, 2013

Awwww :( Her's and Anna Palova's were the first biographies I devoured as a ballet obsessed kid.
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posted by romakimmy at 1:21 AM on April 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

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posted by Katjusa Roquette at 1:32 AM on April 13, 2013

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posted by quazichimp at 4:11 AM on April 13, 2013

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posted by shoesietart at 4:23 AM on April 13, 2013

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posted by tel3path at 5:19 AM on April 13, 2013

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(yes, another footprint en pointe.)
posted by scruss at 6:27 AM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

One of her grandkids posted about her passing on Reddit.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:36 AM on April 13, 2013

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posted by LobsterMitten at 8:45 AM on April 13, 2013

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posted by BibiRose at 8:59 AM on April 13, 2013

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RIP Miss Tallchief.
posted by cool breeze at 9:30 AM on April 13, 2013

She and Marjorie were part of the five treasures from Oklahoma.
posted by francesca too at 9:56 AM on April 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

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posted by From Bklyn at 11:01 AM on April 13, 2013

RIP to America's brilliant ballerina. Seeing her dance in the first ballet I ever attended is a treasured memory from my brief time in New York City.
posted by Anitanola at 12:02 PM on April 13, 2013

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posted by homunculus at 2:12 PM on April 13, 2013

romakimmey, I wonder if we read the same book!

She was my hero, and when she came to our college town with her troupe, my grad student father bought tickets for us to go. I was only 5 at the time (I was a bit precocious), and it was a huge deal for me. After the performance, there was a reception and my father made sure to introduce me to Maria Tallchief. She was so tall I just stared up at her in amazement and didn't know what to say, and she just smiled down at me before some lady whisked her away.
posted by maggiemaggie at 8:47 AM on April 14, 2013

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posted by zaelic at 1:08 PM on April 14, 2013