Maria Tallchief's life was between these two points: Jan 24, 1925 - Apr 11, 2013 In 88 years she produced life giving gifts of dance, creativity and beyond that established links with her ancestors of the Osage nation and those who conquered her people and expanded the whole of the modern world of dance, of ballet!
How do you live? How do you plan to live? Do you plan on living as expansive energies, or trembling underneath the fear of doing, of becoming? It is a choice; it is all a choice as vital as living or dying with breath. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (Creek nation with African blood)
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| Maria Tallchief, Osage prima ballerina born 1925. photo by Vic Casamento. |
Maria Tallchief, who, while she didn’t want to be defined by her Osage roots, was also very proud of them, resisting pressure to change her name to a faux-Russian “Tallchieva.” In the obituary for the ballet superstar who died last week at 88, Sarah Halzack captures a remarkable life story spanning from an Oklahoma Indian reservation to Beverly Hills High School to Monte Carlo to a globe-trotting with first husband George Balenchine, the legendary choreographer who wed some of the best ballerinas in the business over the years. With him, she helped revive the formerly obscure “Nutcracker” into a holiday classic, as she became the defining Sugar Plum Fairy. Read this: Maria Tallchief, ballet star who was inspiration for Balenchine, dies at 88.
Reliable Source
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| Maria Tallchief was considered America’s first major Prima Ballerina. |
“Above all, I wanted to be appreciated as a prima ballerina who happened to be a Native American, never as someone who was an American Indian ballerina.” ~ Maria Tallchief, prima ballerina
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