En Pointe: The Lives and Legacies of Ballet's Native Americans

… … … … … … … … … In the early 1900s, ballet was exclusively European. Although the art form had originated in France, the creative heart of ballet had moved east to the court of the Russian Tsar. By 1910, the world's greatest ballet artist had assembled in St. Petersburg, Nijinsky, Fokin, Mordkin, Miyasi, under the direction of Imperial Russia's greatest emprasario Sergei Diagleth. Then came World War I and the Russian Revolution. With the death of the Tsar, the dancers of the Imperial Ballet became orphans of war. These artists fled to the west, spreading the genius of Russian ballet across Europe and eventually America.

Their touring company, known as the Ballerous, became a home in exile for the Imperial dancers. During the 1920s and 30s, international ballet was dominated by Russians. As World War II approached, a new generation of Americans were preparing to dance their way to the top of the ballet world. Five of those dancers were Native Americans, from small communities in the state of Oklahoma. These are their stories, told in their own words. Maria Talci, America's most famous prima ballerina, the star of the New York City Ballet, the supreme embodiment of the ballin-sheen style. Just one glorious ballet, after another, was done for me by the genius of our time. Rosela Hightower, as a prima ballerina with a Marquis de Cuevas company, she was the toast of Europe and an exquisite interpreter of the Russian classical tradition.

I had all these ballerinas who were direct from the great period of Petipa, of Diagleth. They were in direct line and so I learned these classic rules from them. Marjorie Talci, a ballerina of technical virtuosity, combined with an electric presence. She was the first American in the 20th century to become prima ballerina with the Paris Opera Ballet. Paris Opera has really, very, very good dancers. Actually, I was lucky that they chose me. Yvonne Chouto, as a ballerina with a ballerista Monte Carlo, she was the perfect romantic dancer, combining beauty and grace in her signature role in the ballet, Romeo and Juliet. I am typically a very lyrical, very soft, very spiritual dancer. I think that is what I am best known for in the ballet world. Maslyn Larkin, as a ballerina with the original ballet ruse, Ms. Larkin became a living encyclopedia of the classic repertoire of the Russian ballet.

And that company had the most, I think it's the greatest repertoire that any company ever had. So I really was a lucky young lady. Hello, I'm Richard Thomas. The story of the Native American dancers is very close to my heart. My mother, Barbara Fallas, and my father, Richard Thomas, were professional ballet dancers. They danced with all of the Native American ballerinas and as a child growing up backstage, I saw many of the greatest ballet artists of the time. I have clear childhood memories of standing in the wings and watching Maria tall chief perform. The Native American dancers were born in the 1920s, while the ballet ruse was touring in Europe, and most Americans had never seen a ballet. The eldest of the five ballerinas was Rosela Hightower, born in 1920 of Choctoliniage in the small farming community of Derwood, Oklahoma. She had an active outdoor childhood. I had several cousins, which I ran in the woods when we used to go swimming in the creeks, and so on, and swing out over the creeks with gunny sacks.

Being barefooted, never wearing shoes. Now when I think all children in Oklahoma were barefooted during about six months of the year, I think. Five years later, a second future dancer was born in the small town of Miami, Oklahoma. I was born Edna Mausoleen-Arkin. On January the 14th, 1925, I have a Native American father, Shawnee Peory, and I have a Russian mother. My mother came to this country before the First World War. She had been very busy in the Russian Orthodox Church, going out visiting villages in support of the Tsar. The beginning of the revolution, and it was a very dangerous thing to do. Two of her brothers were taken from their home and just disappeared and never found. Leaving behind the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, Ms. Larkin's mother emigrated to America.

And she was living in Pennsylvania, and she belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church, mother sang in church. They preached to her one day, and he said, Yepka, Yepka come quick. There's a Broadway musical in town, and they're looking for someone who can sing in dance. And my mother, auditioned, and came a part of that musical comedy. They toured across America. They came to Oklahoma City. My father was attending Hills Business College, and he became a stage-door Johnny, fell in love with this young dancer, convinced her to marry him, and to stay in Miami, Oklahoma. Ten days after the birth of Ms. Larkin, Maria Tallchef was born, followed two years later by her sister, Marjorie. I was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma, which is part of the Osage Reservation. My father is at its Andrew Tallchef. He was a very gentle man, very Indian. He was tall. He was about 6'2", and my mother said she was 5'2", but I don't think she really was. I think she was about 5'1", but she always said she was 5'2".

So they made it very elegant pair in a way, because he was very tall, and very dark, and very Indian. He looked like those Indian nickels. My father owned a great deal of Fairfax, Oklahoma. We had the local theater, which was called the Tallchef Theater. So my name was already up in the headlights. It's a child. The youngest of the five ballerinas was Iván Chutó, of French and Shawnee Cherokee heritage. She spent her early years in her grandmother's home in Veneta, Oklahoma. My mother had a huge, big, two-story white Victorian house with the wraparound porch, and I would sit out there and play and have the time of my life. And across the way was the meadow, the pasture land, and she kept three cows. Bessie, bossie, something else. But I still treasure those memories, and I thought about it so many times as I grew up later, traveling on the road, thought about those three cows.

And I remember, especially, grandmother, sitting me on her lap, and she would be churning buttermilk, and she would sing a little song to me, and bounce me on her knee. And those things, of course, remained with me always. Most of the ballerinas began to receive dance training at an early age. Muslim Larkin's mother drew upon her own ballet training in Russia, and opened her own dance studio. I don't remember when I was not dancing either at the powwow or in my mother's dancing classes. The tall chiefs sisters also received dance training in their home, and on summer vacations. I used to go to Colorado in the summertime, and that's where I had my first dancing lesson in the basement of the Broadmore Hotel. And I was very shy, introverted, American Indian child, and I kept my head down. I couldn't figure out what in the world they wanted me to turn my feet like this, that's ridiculous.

We had a teacher, she was a traveling teacher, but I'm Mrs. Sabin. She used to come and she used to teach in our basement. I don't even remember when I started. I probably was two or three, which is awfully young. I mean, so I couldn't have done very much at that time, but we did start dancing. I was dancing in rodeos, in boy scout benefits, in everything I did on tow. I danced to glow, little, glow worm. And my mother had a peach negligee with ostrich feathers. So she took the ostrich feathers off and made it 2-2 out of that. And I also danced something to stars and stripes. And I wore something, I had a blue cape and a little red and white skirt on, like the flag. And I went dancing, I must not have moved my arm, because at the very end I put my arms way up to the side, and there was the American flag. So of course everybody had to applaud. Yvonne Chuteau's parents also began to train her to be a performer. I studied music and the study boys, what they call expression in those days. And of course dancing.

And it taken me to all the powwow. So my first dances were in actuality Indian. I did little Indian dances. When the ballet ruse traveled through Middle America in the 1930s, the effect of the Russian dancers on the young girls was electrifying. It's not just a fluke that we are all Native Americans and that we all became dancers. I think the ballet ruse had an awful lot to do with our being exposed to ballet, because they would tour across America every year. And as children, I know I remember my mother taking me to Oklahoma City to see the ballet. My mother had always wanted to be a ballerina. She must have seen the ballet ruse at some time. And so she was very interested. And so when Mrs. Sabin came, she said certainly what my daughter said dance. And so that's how we beauty started.

Here in Oklahoma City, mother and dad had taken me to see a performance of the original ballet ruse, the Monte Carlo. And it had the fabulous Madame Alexander Denny Lovell, who was later to become my mentor. Ozzella Hightower, whose family had relocated to Kansas City, also saw a performance of the ballet ruse. She was so moved by the experience that she followed the company to Chicago to see another performance. To mother, I said I want to learn to dance. And my mother was a very clever woman. She said, well now, how am I going to know her teacher is good or bad? And so she asked, she tried to inform herself and so on. And finally, she had heard that there was a lady not that didn't live too far from us, who had a dance class. And that she was one of the best in Kansas City. She took me. Perky looked at me. And she said, well, she or her legs are long enough. That should make a dancer.

And she said she seems suppled enough. Why not? We'll try. There was a teacher in Kansas City named Dorothy Perkins. And she was one of America's greatest teachers. Dorothy Perkins was Rosella Hightower's teacher. We lived in Miami, Oklahoma, and my mother would take me on weekends to study with Dorothy Perkins. And Yvonne was living in Vanita, and they took her to Kansas City to study. We were all children with Dorothy Perkins. And Dorothy Perkins was an excellent teacher, a wonderful teacher. It was a very, really open my eyes as to what might be expected of me in the years ahead. The tall chiefs sisters also went on the road to obtain more professional training. Their mother was convinced that they could become movie stars like Shirley Temple, and the family moved to Los Angeles.

We arrived in Los Angeles and stopped in the Wilshire district to get a hamburger. And mother walked over to the drugstore in that area and asked the drugist if there was a good ballet school around. She had a wonderful way to have your future. Anyway, he said, yes, there's a very good school. It's a school of Ernest Belcher. Ernest Belcher was an English ballet master who was the dense instructor to the Hollywood stars. The mother presented Mr. Belcher who was from the Chiquetti, the Italian school of ballet, with her daughters. And he took one look and he was horrified. I was spinning around on my toes in my shoes still much too big. And he said, well, Mrs. Tall Chief, these girls have to start all over the beginning. They've had no training whatsoever, which of course we had. We just started the dance. They played the music and we danced. So in California, we really started studying seriously. And there they took me off my points, which I was very upset about.

I thought I was doing so well. They took me off and I had to start all over again. When I was about 12, one of my mother's friends from dancing school said, well, this very famous lady is moving to Los Angeles. The sister of the famed Nijinsky. Was love Nijinsky was the first star of the ballet ruse and perhaps the greatest dancer of the 20th century. After his brief meteoric career, his sister, Bronis Lava Nijinsky, carried on his tradition through her teaching and choreography. Joining Bronis Lava Nijinsky's new school in Los Angeles placed Maria and Marjorie Tall Chief on a trajectory for ballet stardom. When we went into her studio and she grilled this into us, it was almost like going to church. You treat this with great reverence. It is a great art form. She loved dancing, for her this was everything.

And she gave beauty, which she gave us, was a love of dancing and respect for dancing and a discipline. I mean, if you didn't do exactly what she wanted, she threw you out of class. I mean, there was no fooling around and to stand sort of, you know, attention. And you had to be there all the time. Today I don't think. I couldn't teach that way today. They wouldn't stand it. I don't think. That's the way she taught and that's what we did. Once I met Nijinsky that was, she was the personification of what ballet was all about. A completely dedicated, beautiful, beautiful woman who'd spoke no English, her husband would translate and his English wasn't much better. But that was when I really decided that I would dedicate myself completely to becoming a dancer. Once she asked me, she said, Marjorie, what's the matter? You look tired. And I thought, well, that's very sweet of her. And I said, yes, I am a little tired. And she said, the ballet vina is never tired.

After the Nijinsky era, Michael Fokin became the most famous choreographer of the ballet ruse. He moved to New York after the Bolshevik Revolution, and Maslyn Larkin's mother took her to study with the Maestro. And she had me study with Fokin when I was eight years old. And at the very same time, I was taking tap lessons from Billy Newsom. And I will never forget the very first day that mother took me up to Fokin's studio, which he had on Riverside Drive. He had a whole building. And we walked in and the secretary said, you know, if I were you, I wouldn't let the Maestro see her in those tap shoots. Because I had just had a tap lesson with Billy Newsom. And mother said, well, I'm sorry, those are the only shoes she has. The tap shoes were a reminder of a European stereotype of American dancers. As Maria Tauchief has said, Americans were thought to be capable only of tap dancing and gum chewing. So we went up in the elevator and we met Maestro Fokin.

He loved me. He thought the fact that I was a Native American and a Russian was just really just incredible. And I studied with him that summer and a child. And before we came home, he choreographed a little dance for me in bare feet and with a scarf to the music romance by Roman Stein. The training each summer in New York began to open doors for Ms. Larkin as she reached her teens. Mother took me to Carnegie Hall. And Mikhail Mordkin had a studio there and so did Vincent Zochelli. And I studied with both of them that summer. And both of them told my mother that it would just be a crime for her not to leave me in New York. And they both offered me scholarships and both of them offered me a place to live with a Russian family. And mother chose to leave me with Mikhail Mordkin.

Mikhail Mordkin was one of the principal dancers of Diaglet's Imperial Ballet and the Ballet Rousse. And that year Mordkin himself staged a complete sleeping beauty with the students of his school. I did the black cat. There's a white cat in a black cat sleeping beauty. And I did the lilac fairy variation. Ivanshu Toe spent one summer in Los Angeles studying with Ernest Belcher, where she met Maria and Marjorie Tallchief. And then traveled to New York to continue her training. Mom and dad and I pulled up on 57th Street, front of Steinway Hall. They say, well, this is where you're going to take your lesson with the famous Russian ballet masters. And then back in Scholar, Russian teachers, in order to keep you very humble, they wanted to humiliate you. Not in the sense humiliated, but they wanted you to remember who you were and keep your place and keep striding. It's just the way they approached it, which didn't work too well in America.

But we learned. In my first class, I had never worked so hard in my life. And my poor little feet, teacher had his own point of 12 hours. They were bleeding. I had blisters, but she wouldn't let me stop. She would not hear it. No, you're going to finish the class. You must finish class. You no longer the baby. There my poor little toe shoes were blood soaked. But that was a good lesson for me. Well, this is going to be harder than I thought. When she was 17, Rosela Hightower set out to blaze the trail into professional ballet. Her teacher in Kansas City, Dorothy Perkins, had heard that the ballet rooster Monte Carlo was performing in St. Louis. The company was under the direction of Leonid Miasi, one of the original stars of the Imperial Ballet. She said, you're going to go and you're going to audition, because you're ready now. Without introduction or invitation, but driven by her own determination, Ms. Hightower traveled alone to St. Louis,

and appeared at the auditorium with music and vitrola, ready to audition. A lady came out of the auditorium, and I heard she was speaking Russian, because I didn't recognize what she was saying. And I said, that's one of the answers that I was. So I went up to her and I said, is Mr. Miasi in here, who's the director of the company? And she said, there in the church, I said, yes, Mr. Miasi. Well, he'll be out, he's going to walk the dog, so I know he's coming out way here. So I waited, and he came out with his dog. And I said, Mr. Miasi, could I do an audition for you? He said, well, who sent you? Nobody told me about an audition. What's that? And I said, well, Mr. Miasi, I'm a dancer, and I've been dancing and working hard, and I brought my music, and I just want you to see me dance. And he said, no, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, and so the lady was standing there.

And she said, they are neat, I'll walk your dog, go watch that girl dance. And so he turned you in, and I followed him. I saw that he wasn't happy about it, but I followed him. And I tried to walk fast to keep up with him, and he said, leave that pictorial alone, I don't need music. So I let it go. I went on stage, and he says, well, dance, you came here, you said you want to dance, dance. Well, everything I prepared was perky, right out of my head. I couldn't remember a thing. So I just started dancing. I don't know what I did. I think I did probably everything I'd ever done. I danced and danced. And finally I stopped. And he said, come here. So I went down. And he said, if you can get the Monte Carlo, I'll re-audition you, and we'll see what can be done. And I said, well, Mr. Messin, where is Monte Carlo?

And he said, well, it's on the other side of the ocean. Prior to World War II, the two Ballet Rouge companies auditioned new dancers only at their home theaters in Europe. This practice stacked the odds against Americans joining the companies. So I arrived in Monte Carlo, and there were 200 other dancers. As she prepared for her audition, Ms. Hightower had a bit of luck. A financial backer of the Ballet Rouge to Monte Carlo was an American, Julius Fleischmann, of the Fleischmann yeast fortune. So Messin, he auditioned everyone, and he sent back to everybody away. Maybe we were four Americans, and he kept. As a member of the prestigious Ballet Rouge to Monte Carlo, Ms. Hightower began a five-year tour with the Russian company. From the Russians, I was able to be able to lose myself in their way of thinking and seeing dance. They're always acting. They're always playing a role.

Even when they're suffering, they suffer because they're playing the role of suffering. And it gave me a freedom after that. I mean, I could cry on stage, or I could take a role. I could play the role of a mother. It was a wonderful experience. So I stayed to five years with the Russians, and then when they decided to turn a film in Hollywood, I had heard that the Americans were making a new ballet company in New York. And I thought, well, I don't want to stay six months here in Hollywood, I'm going to try. So I went there, I auditioned, and they took me into the ballet theatre. And we went six months to Mexico with it, and it was very successful. And then we started the tours with York. Took big empresarial. And that was ballet theatre then for about ten years of American tours. Between the Rus and that, it was ten years of American touring.

And I was becoming very tired because we changed every day, every day. We changed cities, and we performed every night. And sometimes two matinees, on purpose. And that was before we had unions. Unions didn't exist. And so sometimes we rehearsed until midnight, and sometimes it was very tiring, but wonderful. I think nobody could have now could have this experience. It's cynical from the union side, it's impossible now. But from the artistic side, I think all of us that lived through that, they all became the choreographers, the great stars of the different companies, and so on. After ten years of professional ballet, Rosella High Tower had achieved the rank of principal dancer. But the ballerinas were still Russian.

On opening night in 1947, at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, Rosella High Tower seized the opportunity to become an internationally recognized prima ballerina. Alicia Markova was scheduled to begin the season with her most famous role, Giselle. Earlier in the day, Markova had become seriously ill. Rosella High Tower was asked to assume the lead. With only a single afternoon rehearsal, she gave a performance which stunned the New York audience. The opening was a triumph. Her extraordinary performance prompted the Marquis de Cuevas to offer her the rank of prima ballerina in his new company. And so, the Marquis was in the audience, Marquis de Cuevas. Who was going to take over the company which had existed in Monte Carlo during the war? And he asked me if I would come and be the ballerina with him. And my more partner, Kate, the Andre Lefsky, said, I'll speak for her. She's coming. If I go, she goes.

So I said, okay, I go. During Rosella High Tower's years with the Marquis de Cuevas, Ronis Lava Nijinska joined the company as a choreographer. The partnership with Madame Nijinska brought Ms. High Tower to the pinnacle of her career and established her as an icon of European ballet. And the technique that she gave me was the technique that she had worked with her brother Nijinski. And she took over after him and she went on for where he left off. And that's why she was happy to find that I could interpret and assayed it to do as the work that she did with him. And I could say, Merci Madame Nijinska. I learned so many things. And there are things that you can work only on special people, special people who are destined to have a special career. You can bring them up to it. And I think she was satisfied. She had the sensation that she had given and been received. It was an excellent relationship.

So I think those are my artistic adventures that moved me and as a person that I try to pass on. After her collaboration with Madame Nijinska, Rosella High Tower moved beyond the classical repertoire with her original creation in the ballet piège de lumière. For me, it was another step and much more freedom. And so that for me was a highlight. Ms. High Tower performed the ballet in her return to Paris in 1957. The reception which the Paris audience gave her was astounding. Upon her entrance, they're cheering and wild applause lasted 15 minutes. And the ovation that Paris gave me when I was crying. Because I have an interest where the boys carried me and they were taking me up in the air and they were taking me down and up and I had long wings.

And so it's a fantastic entrance. The tissue is dancing and I was dancing and they were right. And so it goes on long enough so the audience, when they get excited, they carry it on, you know. Rosella High Tower is revered in France, the birthplace of ballet. She is the recipient of all three levels of the Legion of Honor, France's highest civilian award. When World War II broke out in Europe, the two ballet ruse companies took refuge in America. They couldn't return to their home theaters in France. For the first time, the Russian companies began to audition for new dancers in America. This change presented Muslim Larkin with the opportunity to begin her professional career. The ballet ruse came to town that year and they put a thing up on the bulletin board that asked for all of the older students, none of us, younger girls, to come and go to that audition.

And like teenagers would be, we went across the street to the Horn and Harder cafeteria, which was a very famous place on 57th Street. And we sat there and they said, can you imagine, can you really imagine? You know, they asked everybody to go to that audition, but you know, it would be a really good experience for us, just to attend an audition. So we cut school that morning and we went to that audition. And when it was over, they wanted both Barbara Falas and me. They offered us contracts. My mother, Barbara Falas, didn't join the ballet ruse. Because of World War II, my grandparents didn't want to risk having her travel outside the United States. Ms. Larkin's mother, however, signed the contract to allow her to go on tour. The very first rehearsal that I ever attended, I was standing there scared to death and in walked this Greek God. He had short pants on, they'd been in Cuba, he was suntanned, and he was a principal dancer, a very famous dancer.

I took one look and fell hopelessly, all 15 and a half years of me. Hopelessly in love with this man, went home, drew a big heart on a big, in my diary, wrote Roman Gisinski in the center. And typically of me, I had to, I always talk a lot and I had to write underneath. If I can do this, I will be able to do anything I ever want to do in my whole life. And I meant catch that man. And that man was 17 and a half years older than I was. But I'm a very determined person. I have the courage of my convictions. And I chased that man for a long time. And he married me when I was 19 years old in Buenos Aires, in Argentina. We were in South America all during the Second World War.

It was an incredible time because there was no war in South America. Wherever we went, there were beautiful theaters. They were all sort of like little bitty Paris opera houses. We went through the Brazilian jungle and traveled on a train that ran on coffee beans and wood. At the end of the Second World War, Seoul, Iraq wanted us to come back to America. And that is where I really first met Rosela Hightower and Marjorie Tolci. They were dancing in New York and they were sent down to us in Rio de Janeiro. And then we came back to America and we toured all over America. One night stand tour, it was a wonderful time. Beginning in the ballet ruse de Monte Carlo, I was very, the original ballet ruse. I was very fortunate.

The Metropolitan Ballet was Serge Gregorio, his wife, Louis Wolfchernishava. He was the regia sir and Metropolitan Ballet for the Diagol of Company. And we started out, I was the last little one in the court of ballet. And worked my way up, was with that company for about nine years and became a ballerina with that company. In the same year that Miss Larkin joined the ballet ruse in New York, in California, Ronis Lavinaginska was preparing Maria Tolci for her debut. When I was 15, she gave a concert in the Hollywood Bowl. And one of the ballets to be danced was to the Chopin Concerto. The two leading roles were danced by two ladies. The one lady already chosen was Sid Cheris, who was a beautiful classical dancer.

Beautiful, young woman, I mean, really gorgeous and a beautiful dancer. And Madame Nirginska chose me to dance off a sit-hurt. After her successful debut at the Hollywood Bowl, Maria Tolci joined the Corps of Dancers at MGM Studios. After completing the movie, presenting Lily Mars with Judy Garland, Miss Tolci traveled to New York, to audition for Sergei Denham, in Prasario of the ballet ruse to Monte Carlo. And by some incredible luck, the ballet ruse to Monte Carlo was going to Canada. And the company was full of what you called Nonson people, who had no passports. And they weren't allowed to go to Canada. So Mr. Denham said, well, all right, we'll take you to Canada. You'll have to learn three ballets and dance them the next day. So I picked up my big fortnight, or got on the train. It was so funny. We got on the train. And suddenly, I'm sitting there 17 years old, scared of death, surrounded by these famous, they need mass seen, Alexandra Danilova, Frederick Franklin, the whole group at that time.

Suddenly, I heard clang, clang, clang. This was the war. There were no sleepers. So everybody was making their chairs in the beds, clang, you know, by the time, about a half an hour later, everybody was stretched out, except for me, sitting there, all the way up to Canada. Agnes Demille was doing the ballet rodeo at this time. For the ballet ruse to Monte Carlo, of course Demille was delighted to see me, from Oklahoma, with the name tall chief. Demille was very nice to me. In fact, she gave me a title, solo and rodeo. So at the end of that year, one of the leading ballerinas was very temperamental, and she left. She happened to dance the role that I had danced at the Hollywood Bowl, and she'll have to share it on. Mr. Denham, the head of the ballet ruse to Monte Carlo, came to me and said, Maria, you will have to go on. I'm supposed to dance. Well, I danced at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia,

and I must say everyone was so nice to me. They sent me flowers. One of them helped darn my toeshoes. My boyfriend, Sasha, I'm told, was sick out of the hall. He was so nervous. Anyway, I went on, and Mr. Denham was very pleased. So he said, all right, you will open in New York. We opened with Chopin Concerto. And so, I think I lost about at least over 10 pounds by the time we got to New York City. I was such a nervous wreck. Mr. Denham finally came to me and he said, Maria, you have to be. Time you can't, you're wasting all my time. Mr. Denham, I'm so nervous, I can't even think. Fortunately, it went well. In fact, later, John Martin, the critic for the New York Times, would write, this is a ballerina, if I ever saw one. With her career firmly established by her success in the Chopin Concerto, Maria Talci met an artist who would put her star in orbit.

When I was 18, probably the most important thing happened in my life. I met George Balanchine. The most revolutionary and influential choreographer since Nijinsky, George Balanchine rejuvenated ballet in the post-war era. And I'll never forget. He had the beginning standing in line to teach us just the finale of the green piano concerto. And I couldn't believe it. It was like I was seeing the music. He was the music. What began as mutual professional respect, deepened into romance? We were married in 1946, and this was actually the beginning of when he was starting ballet society, which later became the New York City Ballet. In that same year, the newlyweds were invited to be guest artists at the Paris Opera Ballet. And I can never forget standing on the stage of that beautiful opera house. And the first ballet I danced was Apollo, with music by Stravinsky and choreography by Balanchine.

I'm standing there, and I thought, oh, here I am. You know, this little girl from Fairfax, Oklahoma. The ballet which defined Maria Talci, as America's prima ballerina, was her collaboration with George Balanchine on the Stravinsky Firebird. George and I were having dinner or supper one evening after the performance at the Russian T-Room. Saw York, the famed Impressario, came along and sat with us. We were chatting away. And Mr. York says to Balanchine, wouldn't you like your wife to dance Firebird? At which point I almost fell through the chair. I mean, I had danced many wonderful ballets, but nothing that was famous like the Firebird. It was such a precedence for this role. Great dancers had danced it. So I thought, oh, I hope George is going to say no. Well, turned out Saw York owned the scenery and the costumes by Shagall. And he arranged so George, well, why not?

Yes, fine. I think we had our dress rehearsal at six o'clock in the morning. Since it was the only time we could kind of sneak into the theater, the costumes weren't there. My costume didn't arrive until the intermission before I went on stage. Anyway, it was the first time we had seen the lights. Now, if anyone's ever seen the Shagall Firebird, it's a brilliant, brilliant work of Shagall. It was very colorful and Balanchine knew that if we were going to see the dancers, he had to underlight the scenery. So I am standing in the wings of the dress rehearsal and the music starts. And the music, if you listen to the beginning music, is like hearing a heart beat. Well, my heart was beating so loud that I couldn't hear the music. Suddenly, I heard that for my entrance and I came running on the stage, everything was black, except for two giant gold spotlights hitting me right in the face. Well, I was a morning person, so six o'clock was all right with me. Poor Frank Montyum was not a morning person. He couldn't find my arm to catch.

We would totally be wildered by these lights. Anyway, we got through the so-called dress rehearsal. And my costume arrived, the big feather head piece arrived. And I stood in the wings again at the orchestra playing now, the overture. And again, my heart beating so fast. You know, we didn't even, Mr. Bowenstein, as we call it, didn't think to rehearse the bow. He didn't know if anybody was going to like it or not. So we never rehearse the bow. The bow light finishes with this huge wedding scene, which is beautiful music and sets and all. And the curtain came down. And suddenly it was if we were in a football stadium. It was a roar from the city center audience. There were screams of bravo. And later I was told that people up in the balcony were stomping their feet, stabbing their feet, and saying, tall, chief, tall, chief.

I mean, it was unbelievable. So I am one who doesn't complain about all the hours that I spent working, because they were in retrospect glorious moment. And I have to also say, I was in the right place at the right time, and I knew it. While her sister was beginning her career with the Ballet Rooster Montecarlo, Marjorie tall, chief, remained in California, working in the movies, and continuing her training with Madame Nijinsky. My sister was in Ballet Rooster. And they asked me if I wanted to join Ballet Rooster. And Madame Nijinsky said, no, that I shouldn't. We looked too much alike, really, to be in the same company. And they said she's already there. She has her own roles. And in a company, when you first start, there aren't that many roles. And, you know, so probably she would get them before you. And so you should really go into your own company.

Marjorie tall, chief, joined Ballet Theatre, which brought her to the attention of the famous choreographer, David Lichin. He was going to the graduation ball there. And I was going to be one of the fuller takers. That was what I did well when I was very young, I guess. I was a very good tuner, as I'd say. After two years in American Ballet Theatre, Marjorie tall, chief, moved to the Ballet Roost as a soloist. In 1947, Alicia Markov's illness opened the door for Miss tall, chief, to move into featured roles. Her years of training with Madame Nijinska and her own dedication had prepared her to make the most of her opportunities. To be a dancer, you really have to have hard work. I mean, you have to start basically with hard work. I've seen many young dancers who I thought were talented, but they did not make it. And it's just simply, they were willing to work that hard and to dedicate themselves that much to it. I mean, and I've seen some that aren't quite that talented, that did make it because they were so determined.

And maybe the body wasn't perfect, or maybe the face wasn't perfect. Something was wrong. They somehow managed to cover that up because they were so determined. And then luck maybe plays a small part of anything. But also, I find it's a dancer. They'll say, oh, you were lucky, somebody got sick and you were ready to go into it. But that isn't true in a way. There is luck. But it's also you had to be ready to take that luck. If you're not ready to take the luck, the luck can come. And if you're not ready to seize the opportunity, then it doesn't matter. The luck doesn't mean anything. With her success in featured roles with the Ballet Rousse, Marjorie Tallchef was poised to assume the title of Ballerina. At the end of the Ballet Rousse season, she was invited to join the new Marquis de Cuevas company as second Ballerina behind the featured artist Rosela Hightower. It was an opportunity to establish her own reputation as an important dancer.

Before beginning her European career, however, Marjorie Tallchef was married. She and George Skibin were engaged to be married. And he was, of course, one of the glamour boys of the Ballet World. Handsome, big blue eyes and balance sheet. And I went down to Vichy, where they were married in the Russian church, which was very thrilling. And in fact, Madame Nidinsky was there. Following their marriage, George Skibin and Marjorie Tallchef toured the world with the Marquis de Cuevas company. With the Marquis de Cuevas, it was marvellous. We traveled everywhere. We were in London. We were in Italy. We were in Venice. We were in Egypt. We were in Tunis. We traveled all over the world, which was very exciting. I was very lucky that I traveled so much because I could see the great museums of the world and hear orchestras, opera, etc. And that always did all of she was an artist. Everything you see comes in, and then it goes out when you're performing.

During the years with the Marquis de Cuevas company, George Skibin was building his reputation as a choreographer and Marjorie Tallchef as a dancer. In 1956, the couple was invited to join the Paris Opera Ballet, where Mr. Skibin would serve as dance master and Ms. Tallchef would perform as a prima ballerina. I joined the Paris Opera Ballet as a premier dancer as a twine. The Paris Opera was the birthplace of classical ballet in the 17th century. Its aura is that of a shrine within the world of dance. No American had been a member of its company in the 20th century, although a few Americans had performed there as guest artists, including Marjorie Tallchef. When Marjorie Tallchef became a prima ballerina of the Paris Opera in 1957, her appointment was historic, establishing her reputation as a leading ballerina in Europe. When she was 14, Yvonne Chouteau, and some of her fellow students,

learned of an audition for the Ballet Rousse de Monte Carlo. Their spur of the moment decision to try out launched Ms. Chouteau's professional career. So we went to the audition, and there was my idol that I adored from Oklahoma City, Madame Alexander Daniela was sitting there, one of the judges. I thought, oh, my knees have turned to water, I can never do this, I'm so nervous. So I did my little variation from the ballet corpelia. Then we left, hurried back, we had to get to school and then get to ballet class. We didn't think too much about it. Oh, this is a wonderful experience for us. So in a few days, the ballet master called, says, why did Yvonne run away so quickly? We wanted her to stay and have Madame Daniela tell her some very special news. We want her to join the Ballet Rousse de Monte Carlo. We know she is only 14, and Mother said, no, I don't want my daughter going off on tour with these older people.

She's led a very sheltered life, and I simply can't. We promised you Mrs. Chouteau, and that's the first time we heard our name pronounce that way. Of course, there were only French people and Russian people in the company. They said, that is a beautiful French name. Why do you call it Chouteau? It should be Chouteau. They said, well, that's the way we call it in Oklahoma, and that's the way the Indians said. So the company promised that I would have a chaperone. And my chaperone was to be a secretary of Madame Daniela, who was a very strict English lady from London, who looked after Madame D did everything for all her correspondence. And that's who I lived with for a team, because there was no one else that young in the company. But Madame D kept a very strict eye and called her baby. She would sit me on her lap, also, because she would say, you're my baby, you're my little baby. Now, that made me think of my grandmother. I grew up, then I grew up in the company.

I was able to see the greatest artists of our day and age on stage. I could watch the wonderful Mime scenes, the drama of Alexandra Daniela, the famous Cuban ballerina, Alicia Lanzo, whose legendary could watch her night after night in the ballet chisel. I could see the artistry so that when time came that I could dance chisel, I could draw up on that. That's what the young artists don't have today. And at 16, the management said, we would like for Yvonne. We believe that she really deserves to have a solo. We would like to award her with the solo role. So, Copelio was Madame Daniela's great ballet. She was wonderful in it. No one ever equaled her in Copelio. So, I was allowed to do what they call La Prière, the prayer solo in the third act. I had a beautiful blue chiffon costume. So, I just, you know, at 16, I couldn't believe I was getting to do a solo in New York Metropolitan Opera.

And the next day, of course, I had a very nice review from the renowned critic John Martin, the dance critic on the New York Times, and Michito was lovely in every way in her first solo. So, that, I didn't get a big head. You know, we had to work too hard and there were too many Russians insulting us to get a big head. They didn't have to worry about little Yvonne. Once known as the Baby of the Ballet Rousse, Yvonne Chuto began to mature as an artist and a person. Sergei Dinham, the director, had bought in about five South American boys to dance. They were very, very gifted, very talented. And among them was Miguel Taracoff. They started pairing us together in the Ballets, Parisian, Bodenu, certain Ballets. And so, we fell in love. Din came the role of my career, and especially in Ballet Rousse, that established me as a ballerina.

That's what I had been waiting for. I was 21 at that time. They gave me Juliet and Romeo and Juliet. And I would have to say probably that that became my trademark at that time. And forever after, I loved being Juliet. I just entered into the part. I was a lyrical ballerina, which is exactly what I set out to be. It's what my father wanted, a lyrical, romantic ballerina. I was not flashy. I was not a firebird. I am typically a very lyrical, very soft, very spiritual dancer. And I think that is what I am best known for in the Ballet world. Two decades after the Ballet Rousse first traveled across America, inspiring a generation of new dancers, the improbable had happened.

Americans had achieved both prominence and respect in professional ballet. The dreams of the Native American girls had been realized. All five were internationally recognized ballerinas. Two, reigns supreme on both sides of the Atlantic. Maria Tallchef was the acknowledged prima ballerina of the American stage. Rosela Hightower was without peer in Europe. The contributions of the five ballerinas to American and international ballet did not end after their performing careers. Rosela Hightower served as ballet master of the Paris Opera Ballet and founded professional companies in Marseille, Nancy and Milan, as well as her world famous dance institute in Cannes. Masleyn Larkin, along with her husband, Roman Gisinski, founded the Tulsa Ballet and was the impressario of the Ballet Rousse retrospect, the four moons Ballet and the American Indian ballerina festival. Ivan Shuto, with her husband Miguel Tarikov, established the Oklahoma City Ballet,

which later became Ballet Oklahoma, the Shuto Tarikov Academy of Ballet and the School of Dance at the University of Oklahoma. Marjorie Tallchef with her husband, George Skibin, founded the Dallas Ballet and was the head of the dance faculty at the Chicago Opera Ballet and the Herod Conservatory in Florida. Maria Tallchef created the Chicago Opera Ballet. For her contributions to American Ballet, she received both the Kennedy Center Award for Lifetime Achievement and the National Medal of Arts from the President. In 1997, the five Native American Ballerinas were named Arts Treasures in their native state of Oklahoma. The National Medal of Arts was an award of the University of Oklahoma,

which was held in the Chicago Opera Ballet and was the head of the National Medal of Arts. In 1997, the National Medal of Arts was held in the Chicago Opera Ballet and was the head of the National Medal of Arts. … … … … … … … … … A VHS copy of On Point, The Lives and Legacies of Ballets Native Americans, is available for $35.90. Call 405-841-4004 for Visa or Mastercard orders today, or mail a check for $35.90 to the address listed here.