Maria Tallchief, born Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief (𐓏𐒰𐓐𐒿𐒷-𐓍𐓂͘𐓄𐒰 "Two-Standards"; Osage family name: Ki He Kah Stah Tsa, Osage script: 𐒼𐒱𐒹𐒻𐒼𐒰-𐓆𐓈𐒷𐓊𐒷; January 24, 1925 – April 11, 2013), was an Osage ballerina. She was America's first major prima ballerina and the first Native American to hold the rank. Together with Georgian-American choreographer George Balanchine, she is widely considered to have revolutionized American ballet.
Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma, on January 24, 1925, as the third child of Alexander Joseph Tall Chief (1890–1959), a member of the Osage Nation, and his second wife, Ruth (née Porter), of Scottish-Irish descent. Porter had met Alexander Tall Chief, then a widower, while visiting her sister, who was his mother's housekeeper at the time. Elizabeth Marie was known as "Betty Marie" to friends and family.
Elizabeth Tall Chief's paternal great-grandfather, Peter Bigheart, had helped negotiate for the Osage concerning rights to mineral and other resources of their reservation land. When oil was discovered, oil revenues enriched members of the Osage Nation. Her father grew up with wealth, never working "a day in his life."
In her autobiography, Tallchief explained, "As a young girl growing up on the Osage reservation in Fairfax, Oklahoma, I felt my father owned the town. He had property everywhere. The local movie theater on Main Street and the pool hall opposite belonged to him. Our 10-room, a terracotta-brick house stood high on a hill overlooking the reservation." The family spent summers in Colorado Springs to escape the Oklahoma heat. Life was far from perfect, though, because her father was a binge drinker and her parents often fought about money.
Tallchief's father had first been married to a German immigrant and had three children from that marriage before her death: Alex III (1915-1994); Frances (1912–1971); Ruth (1917-1923), and Thomas (1919–1981). Thomas played football for the University of Oklahoma, and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Alexander and Ruth Tall Chief's first child was a boy, Gerald (1922–1999). He was severely injured in childhood when kicked in the head by a horse and never regained normal cognitive function. Their second, Marjorie, became an accomplished ballerina in her own right. She also was Tallchief's "best friend."
As a child, Ruth Porter had dreamed about becoming a performer, but her family could not afford dance or music lessons. She was determined that her daughters would have opportunities for both. Marjorie and Betty Marie were enrolled in summer ballet classes in Colorado Springs, the latter starting at age 3. She and other family members also performed at rodeos and other local events. Betty Marie studied piano and contemplated becoming a concert pianist.
In 1930, a ballet teacher from Tulsa, Mrs. Sabin, visited Fairfax looking for students and took on Betty Marie and Marjorie as students. Looking back on Sabin many years later, Tallchief wrote, "She was a wretched instructor who never taught the basics, and it's a miracle I wasn't permanently harmed." In addition to the problems in her teaching technique, Sabin had put Betty Marie en pointe shortly after she joined the school (at 5 years old), when she was far too young to be able to dance en pointe without injury.
At age five, Betty Marie was enrolled at the nearby Sacred Heart Catholic School. Impressed by her reading ability, the teachers allowed her to skip the first two grade levels. Between piano, ballet, and school work, she had little free time but loved the outdoors. In her autobiography, she reminisced about time spent "wandering around our big front yard" and "[rambling] around the grounds of our summer cottage hunting for arrowheads in the grass."
In 1933, the family moved to Los Angeles with the intention of getting the children into Hollywood musicals. The day they arrived in Los Angeles, her mother asked the clerk at a local drugstore if he knew any good dance teachers. The clerk recommended Ernest Belcher, father of dancer Marge Champion. "An anonymous man in an unfamiliar town decided our fate with those few words," Tallchief later recalled. The California school moved Betty Marie back to the proper grade for her age but put her in an Opportunity Class for advanced learners. "Opportunity Class or not, I was still way ahead," she recalled. "With nothing to do, I often wandered around the schoolyard by myself." At this time in ballet class, Betty Marie was removed from pointe, probably saving her from major injury.
Bored with school, Betty Marie devoted herself to dance in Belcher's studio. In addition to ballet, which she had to relearn from the beginning, she also studied tap, Spanish dancing, and acrobatics. She found tumbling very difficult and eventually quit the class, but later in life put the skills to good use. The family moved to Beverly Hills, where schools offered better academics. At Beverly Vista School, Betty Marie experienced what she described as "painful" discrimination and took to spelling her last name as one word, Tallchief. She continued to study piano, appearing as a guest soloist with small symphony orchestras throughout high school.
At age 12, Tallchief began to work with Bronislava Nijinska, a renowned choreographer who had recently opened her own studio in Los Angeles, and David Lichine, a choreographer and former dancer. Nijinska "was a personification of what ballet was all about," Tallchief recalled. "I looked at her, and I knew this was what I wanted to do." Nijinska imparted a strong sense of discipline and the belief that being a ballerina was a full-time task. "We didn't concentrate only for an hour and a half a day," Tallchief recalled. "We lived it." It was under Nijinska that Tallchief decided ballet was what she wanted to devote her life to. "Before Nijinska, I liked ballet but believed that I was destined to become a concert pianist," she recalled. "Now my goal was different." Nijinska saw Tallchief was serious and began devoting great attention to her.
When Tallchief was 15, Nijinska decided to stage three ballets in the Hollywood Bowl. Tallchief expected a lead role but instead was put in the corps de ballet. She was devastated: "I was hurt and humiliated. I couldn't understand what was happening ... Didn't she love me anymore?" After a pep talk from her mother, Tallchief rededicated herself and soon worked her way into a lead part in Chopin Concerto. When the big day came, she slipped during rehearsal and was concerned, but Nijinska dismissed it saying "happens to everybody." Tallchief also received instruction from various distinguished teachers during their visits to Los Angeles. For Ada Broadbent, she danced her first pas de deux. Mia Slavenska took a shine to Tallchief and arranged for her to audition for Serge Denham, director of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. He was impressed, but nothing came of it.
Tallchief graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1942. She had given up piano and wanted to go to college, but her father was against it. "I've paid for your lessons all your life," he said. "Now it's time for you to find a job." She won a bit part in Presenting Lily Mars, an MGM musical with Judy Garland. Dancing in the movie was "not gratifying" and Tallchief decided against making a career of it. That summer, family friend Tatiana Riabouchinska asked if Tallchief would like to go to New York City. With Riabouchinska chaperoning, she set off for the city at age 17 in 1942.
Once in New York, Tallchief looked up Denham, for whom she had an earlier favorable audition. A secretary told her that his Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo did not need any more dancers, and she left crying. A few days later, she was told there was a place for her after all. Denham did not remember her, but she had something he needed – a passport. Many of his dancers were Russian refugee émigrés who were stateless and lacked passports. The troupe had an upcoming Canadian tour. She was taken on, but only as an apprentice. Her performance was in Gaîté Parisienne. After the Canadian tour, one dancer left the troupe. Maria Tallchief was offered that dancer's place at $40 per week.