|
Elizabeth Marie "Betty" Tall Chief (Osage family name: ''Ki He Kah Stah Tsa'';〔 January 24, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was considered America's first major prima ballerina,〔 and was the first Native American to hold the rank.〔 Almost from birth, Tall Chief was involved in dance, starting formal lessons at age three. When she was eight, her family relocated from her birth home of Fairfax, Oklahoma, to Los Angeles, California, to advance the careers of her and her younger sister, Marjorie. At age 17, she moved to New York City in search of a spot with a major ballet company, and, at the urging of her superiors, took the name Maria Tallchief. She spent the next five years with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where she met legendary choreographer George Balanchine. When Balanchine co-founded what would become the New York City Ballet in 1946, Tallchief became the company's first star. The combination of Balanchine's difficult choreographing and Tallchief's passionate dancing revolutionized the ballet. Her 1949 role in ''The Firebird'' catapulted Tallchief to the top of the ballet world, establishing her as a prima ballerina. Her role as the Sugarplum Fairy in ''The Nutcracker'' transformed the ballet from obscure to America's most popular. She traveled the world, becoming the first American to perform in Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. She made regular appearances on American TV before she retired in 1966. After retiring from dance, Tallchief was active in promoting ballet in Chicago. She served as director of ballet for the Lyric Opera of Chicago for most of the 1970s, and debuted the Chicago City Ballet in 1981.〔 Tallchief was honored by the people of Oklahoma with multiple statues and an honorific day. She was inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame and received a National Medal of Arts. In 1996, Tallchief received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievements. Her life has been the subject of multiple documentaries and biographies. ==Early life== Tall Chief, known as "Betty Marie" to friends and family, was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma, on January 24, 1925, to Alexander Joseph Tall Chief (1890–1959), a member of the Osage Nation, and his wife, Ruth (née Porter), of Scottish-Irish descent.〔〔 Porter had met Tall Chief, a widower, while visiting her sister, who was his mother's housekeeper at the time. Elizabeth Tall Chief's paternal great-grandfather, Peter Bigheart, had helped negotiate for the Osages concerning oil revenues that enriched the Osage Nation. Her father grew up rich as a result, never working "a day in his life." In her autobiography, Tall Chief 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, 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, as her father was a binge drinker and her parents often fought about money.〔 Tall Chief had five siblings, three from her father's first marriage to a German immigrant: Alexander; Frances (1913–1999); and Thomas (1919–1981), who played football for the University of Oklahoma, and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers; Gerald (1922–1999), who was injured in childhood when kicked in the head by a horse and never regained normal cognitive function.〔 Her sister Marjorie, an accomplished ballerina in her own right, was Ruth's second child and Betty Marie'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 not suffer the same fate. Betty Marie was enrolled in summer ballet classes in Colorado Springs at age 3. She and other family members performed at rodeos and other local events.〔 Tall Chief 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, Tall Chief 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 Tallchief on pointe shortly after she joined the school (at 5 years old) while she was far too young to be able to dance on pointe without injury. At age five, Tall Chief 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 Tall Chief had little free time, but loved the outdoors. In her autobiography, she reminisced about time spent "wandering around our big front yard" and "() around the grounds of our summer cottage hunting for arrowheads in the grass."〔 In 1933, the family moved to Los Angeles with the intent 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", Tall Chief later recalled.〔 California moved Tall Chief 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 school yard by myself."〔 She also removed Tall Chief from pointe, probably saving Tallchief major injury. Bored with school, Tall Chief devoted herself to dance in Belcher's studio. In addition to ballet, which she had previously been doing all wrong and went back to square one, she learned tap, Spanish dancing, and acrobatics there. 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, Tall Chief 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 Nijinksa dismissed it saying "happens to everybody."〔〔 Tallchief also received instructions 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.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Maria Tallchief」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|