Maria Tallchief Prima Ballerina

Maria Tallchief Prima Ballerina

A National Treasure The date was September 29, 1999. The place was Washington, D. C. The event was the award ceremony for the National Medal of Arts. This award is the highest honor given to an artist by a U. S. president. One of the people awarded that year was Maria Tallchief. A tall, elegant dancer, she had taken the world of ballet by storm fifty years earlier. How did Tallchief become American ballet's first shining star? Her story begins on a Native American reservation in Oklahoma.

Early Years Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief-nicknamed Betty Marie-was born on January 24, 1925, in Fairfax, Oklahoma. She was born on the Osage (OH-sayj) Reservation, and her father, Alexander, was full-blooded Osage. Oil found on Osage land when he was young made many members of the tribe rich. As an adult, Alexander owned a large amount of property in Fairfax. Betty Marie's mother, Ruth, came from Scottish and Irish settlers. She saw that Betty Marie and her younger sister, Marjorie, had a musical gift. Both girls took piano and dance lessons from an early age.

In 1933, when Betty Marie was eight, her parents decided to move the family to Los Angeles. They thought the girls needed a better education than Fairfax offered. When they moved, they found a dance school even before buying a house. The girls studied ballet, tap dancing, acrobatics, and Spanish dancing. Before long, Betty Marie and Marjorie were dancing at rodeos and county fairs. Both girls disliked the fake Native American dance routine they sometimes performed. It was an example of the stereotypes many people had about Native Americans.

At age twelve, Betty Marie decided to stop piano lessons and just study ballet. That's when her life as a dancer really began. Soon after, she became a student of Bronislava Nijinska (brah-nuh-SLAH-vuh nuh-JIN-skuh), her first important ballet teacher. Betty Marie studied with Madame Nijinska from 1937 until 1942. During that time, she learned to dance with power, grace, and feeling. By the time she finished high school in 1942, she knew that ballet was the right path for her.

New York: A Star Is Born When Betty Marie was a teenager, all the well-known ballet dancers were Russian. The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (ROOSS DU MOHN- tee KAR-loh) was a Russian ballet company that often performed in the United States. The company, which was based in New York, came to Los Angeles in 1938. Betty Marie attended all their performances and saw great ballet dancers for the first time. She was amazed. After Betty Marie graduated, she went to New York. The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo hired her as a dancer almost immediately. At that point, she changed her name to Maria Tallchief.