Maria Tallchief and Erik Bruhn, 1961
courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

Maria Tallchief, considered to be America’s first prima ballerina and the first native American prima ballerina, sadly passed away earlier this year at the age of 88. Well known for her role in George Balanchine’s “Firebird”, she became one of New York City Ballet’s early prima ballerinas, and Firebird became a great success for NYCB.

Rather than writing something about her life, in this youtube clip, I found it interesting in that she speaks about rehearsing and performing and taking on the title role of “The Firebird” for George Balanchine:

“He was very careful about how you use your hands, what they call port de bras, how they move – the hands, the elbow, the shoulder….  the soul of the dancer. He was a poet and he taught us how to react and to become this poetry.”  And, speaking of opening night: “The curtain came down and suddenly the City Center sounded like a stadium after a football game after someone’s made a touchdown, it was unbelievable, screaming, yells of Bravo, this and that….”

And, a moving tribute to her life: