Oklahoma’s Gift to Ballet: Five Months of Ballerinas


Balanchine, who adored America, wrote that she loved the Osage legacy. 1997 autobiography. However, tense cultural characterizations prevailed in the 1944 version of “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme,” featuring “Danse Indienne” pas de deux. In a vividly preserved performance in a 16-millimeter film, Maria dances with her knees lifted parallel to the fast stylized wearing a fluffy feather headdress, pom-poms, and a sash. (Balanchine would later completely rework the ballet without “Danse Indienne.”) Maria played prominent roles in ballets such as “Firebird” and “The Four Temperaments” and became a hallmark of American dance.

Following her sister, Marjorie practiced ballet professionally, joining the Ballet Theatre, then Basil’s Original Ballet Russe and the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas in France. In 1956, he was invited to the Paris Opera Ballet as the first American étoile of the highest rank in the company, dominating the classical repertoire with his electrifying control and lyrical stage presence.

Hightower also built her career largely in Europe, eventually becoming a leading ballerina with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. He was so loved that when he returned to that company after finishing his touring contract with the Ballet Theater in 1957, the audience applauded for 15 minutes when he entered the “Piège de Lumière”.

These five outstanding Native American ballerinas all emerged from Oklahoma within a decade. As students, they frequently went to some of the same studios and masterclasses, including Kansas City and Los Angeles, but in short-term stages throughout their careers, as they sometimes performed together in companies. In several interviews, Chouteau acknowledged his Shawnee-Cherokee heritage as an inspiration for the dance. (She toured Oklahoma as a child, her parents insisting on the authenticity of each of her dances.) Marjorie Tallchief noted the enormous influence Ballet Russe had on small towns as they made their way across the country.

Chouteau and Larkin would continue to perform alongside dancers they once admired from the audience. Chouteau was a leading ballerina with the Russe de Monte Carlo Ballet, which she joined at age 14; and Larkin worked for companies such as Basil’s Ballet Russe and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

As professionals, each of the Five Moon dancers would face challenges, not only because of the persecution of constant travel, but also because they had to find their place in their company’s culture not only as Oklahomanian but also as Indigenous women. Being from the United States, they were perceived by the public and the press as exhibiting general informality and a comfort on stage. Although Hightower has gained international recognition, she is still referred to as a “little American girl” in a Dance Magazine feature. Chouteau recalled encouraging his fellow dancers to pronounce his name in a more French way, rather than how he grew up in his family. They were Americans at a time when ballet wasn’t quite American yet.



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