New York City Ballet celebrates centennial of Maria Tallchief

New York City Ballet celebrates the centenary of Maria Tallchief’s birth with the All Balanchine II programme.

The programme, which runs for 5-18 February 2025, three George Balanchine’s works that are closely associated to Tallchief: Scotch Synphony, Sylvia: Pas de Deux and Firebird.

For more details about the performances, click here.

Maria Tallchief, who is widely regarded as America’s first major prima ballerina, was born on 24th January 1925 in the oil-rich Fairfax, Oklahoma, to the Scottish-Irish mother and the Native American father, a member of the Osage Nation.

Maria traveled to New York in 1942 when she was 17 years old and joined Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Two years later, George Balanchine was hired by the company. He left the company to set up the Ballet Sciety, which was a direct predecessor of the New York City Ballet, in 1946.

Maria joined Mr. B’s new company when the contract with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo expired six months later in 1947. The rest is history.

Two were married from 1946 to 1952.

Here is the interesting New York Times article about her life and how she transformed ballet — Americanized it if I am not mistaken— in the United States when ballet was pretty much dominated by Russian ballerinas there.

Her younger sister Marjorie Tallchief was also an accomplished ballerina and a trailblazer, who later became the first Native American ballerina to be ‘première danseuse étoile’ of the Paris Opera Ballet.

Here is an interview with Maria. It includes fascinating video footages of Firebird and others.