Oklahoma’s Firebird: The First American Prima Ballerina, Maria Tallchief

Hidden Voices began as a collaboration with the Museum of the City of New York to  help City students learn about the countless individuals who are often “hidden” from traditional historical records. Each of the people highlighted in this series has made a positive impact on their communities while serving as outstanding examples of leadership, advocacy, and community service.

Today, we're sharing the story of Maria Tallchief, an Osage woman who went on to become the first prima ballerina from the United States, which she did right here in our city at the New York City Ballet. Over the course of her career, Tallchief was credited with transforming ballet from a "foreign" art form into an American one.

When Maria Tallchief (1925–2013) took her first dance lesson at age three near her home in Fairfax, Oklahoma, ballet was considered to be a foreign art form. Most famous ballerinas were Russian, and there had never been an American prima ballerina before. Tallchief would change that: the young Osage girl grew up to become the first, transforming ballet in the eyes of the public along the way and putting the U.S. on the map in the world of dance.

Maria was born in 1925 to an Irish and Scottish mother and an Osage father. Her family experienced both the prosperity and the violence that resulted from the discovery of oil on Osage land. When the oil was found, Osage tribal members—including the Tallchiefs—received "headrights," which entitled them to shares of the profits. This generated significant wealth for the tribe. However, this prosperous period was followed by the Osage Reign of Terror—a time when dozens of Osage were murdered in a scheme to inherit their headrights, which couldn't be bought or sold, and were instead violently stolen. Tragically, relatives of the Tallchief family were among those killed.

Despite these challenges, Maria's passion for dance grew from the early days of her childhood. She started ballet lessons in Oklahoma, but it wasn't long before her mother, Ruth, persuaded the family to move to California so that Maria and her sister Marjorie, who also grew up to become a world-famous dancer, could receive more advanced dance training. 

It was in California where Maria took her first classes with Ernest Belcher, a British principal dancer and accomplished Hollywood choreographer. Belcher worked on over 200 Hollywood productions before 1931 and created 70 percent of all dance sequences in Hollywood movies made before the early 1930's. His lessons helped Maria correct many of the harmful techniques and practices that she and her sister had previously learned back in Oklahoma. With Belcher's guidance and input from another teacher, Bronislava Nijinska, Maria overcame her flawed techniques and developed new skills that would help her continue advancing in her ballet career.

In fact, her growing talent landed her a spot with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which had relocated to New York City at the start of World War II. Tallchief moved to New York in 1942 at age 17 to begin touring with the company immediately. During these early days of her career, she faced pressure to change her name to sound more Russian—to become "Tallchieva" instead of "Tallchief." This as a common practice for ballerinas at the time, but Maria refused to renounce her Osage heritage and identity. She proudly kept her name for the rest of her life and career. 

While dancing with the Ballet Russe, Maria was introduced to George Balanchine. Today, Balanchine is remembered as one of the most influential ballet choreographers of the 20th century. In his lifetime, he was also known for his romantic relationships with his dancers, and he eventually married Tallchief in 1946. She became his muse as he started his own ballet company, which would later become the New York City Ballet.

At the New York City Ballet, Tallchief danced in some of her most iconic roles—and some of the most notable roles in ballet history. In 1949, she starred in Balanchine’s Firebird, a performance in which a New York Times reviewer wrote that Balanchine “asked [Tallchief] to do everything except spin on her head, and she does it with complete and incomparable brilliance.” As the titular Firebird, Tallchief made history: she became not only the first Native American prima ballerina but in fact the first-ever prima ballerina from the United States. 

Tallchief's career trajectory at this time mirrored that of ballet itself: it was taking off. As Maria found success, the public perception of ballet in the United States was changing, too; after many years of being seen as a Russian form of dance, ballet was no longer seen as "foreign." Balanchine has received much of the credit for this transformation, having created, highly-respected styles as a choreographer that helped "Americanize" ballet. But it was Tallchief—as one of the five Native American ballerinas who became known as "The Five Moons"—whose talent and success truly cemented this change. This group of women—which also included Yvonne Choteau, Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin, and Maria's sister Marjorie—broke down ethic barriers in their field, and paved a path not just for indigenous dancers, but for American dancers in general, to be welcomed into the classical dance world.

Though Tallchief and Balanchine separated shortly after the premiere of Firebird, the pair remained close friends and colleagues. Maria continued to dance with the New York City Ballet until 1960. During her remaining years there, she also originated the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, which premiered in 1954. The critic Walter Terry wrote that in that role, Tallchief was “a creature of magic, dancing the seemingly impossible with effortless beauty of movement, electrifying us with her brilliance, enchanting us with her radiance of being. Does she have any equals anywhere, inside or outside of fairyland? While watching her in The Nutcracker, one is tempted to doubt it.”

The glowing reviews Tallchief received for her performance contributed to the ballet’s success, which continues each year to this day, when the New York City Ballet stages Balanchine's Nutcracker during the holiday season. She was compensated appropriately: around this time, Tallchief was reported to be the highest paid ballerina in the world.

In recognition of her many achievements, Tallchief received many honors throughout her life. In 1953, the state of Oklahoma declared June 29 “Maria Tallchief Day,” and President Eisenhower named her the Woman of the Year. She was inducted into both the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and National Women’s Hall of Fame. In 1996, she received Kennedy Center Honors.

When she received the National Medal of Arts Award in 1999, President Bill Clinton described Tallchief's legacy: “A reviewer once said that hers will always be the story of ballet conquering America,” Clinton said, “but also, I would add, the story of America conquering ballet. Maria Tallchief took what had been a European art form, and made it America's own. How fitting that a Native American woman would do that.”