rg Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 as of this evening, no further information. Link to comment
Helene Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Oh, sad news. Rest in peace, Ms. Tallchief. Link to comment
Paul Parish Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Well she's with the angels and Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn and Stravinsky and Balanchine now. I wish I'd seen her -- Francis Mason was not the only one to think of her days as the most exciting ones of all. She's on the cover of i remember Balanchine. i've recently been watching her in Allegro Brillante and Scotch on youtube and finding her musicality attack, precision thrilling. I showed her in Scotch to a friend who thought it was Kitsch and I just had to bite my tongue, cuz I thought it was romantic, the separations of hte lovers were harsh and unbearable and made my heart pound but I wasn't about to try to explain that to him, he'd just have been embarrassed for him and i'd have been forced to cut him off. Link to comment
pherank Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 as of this evening, no further information. Thank you for letting us know - very sad, but it will renew interest in her accomplishments - if only for a while. Link to comment
Paul Parish Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Tallchief in Allegro Brillante http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YG2JwU32-4 Link to comment
sandik Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Such sad news -- thank you Paul, for a glimpse at her skills! Link to comment
Paul Parish Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Here's from the first chapter of her autobiography:http://www.nytimes.c...-tallchief.htmlWhat a strong, clear mind -- and what wit! Balanchine never loved a woman who wasn't smart and a wit."My father, Alexander Joseph Tall Chief, was a full-blooded Osage Indian. Six foot two, he walked with a sturdy gait and loved to hunt. The story goes that he could stroll through the woods, rifle in hand, spot a quail or pheasant out of the corner of his eye, point the gun, and shoot the bird without breaking his stride. With his strong aquiline profile, Daddy resembled the Indian on the buffalo-head nickel. Women found him handsome, and when I was young I idolized him.My earliest memory of my father is from when I was three. I slept in a second-floor bedroom with my sister Marjorie, who was an infant. One evening when I fell asleep in the living room, Daddy picked me up. Snuggled in his arms, I remember waking as we climbed the stairs. I can still see his dark eyes, his tender smile, his shiny black hair.When Daddy was a boy, oil was discovered on Osage land, and overnight the tribe became rich. 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 ten-room, terra-cotta-brick house stood high on a hill overlooking the reservation.When my father was a young man, he married a young German immigrant and they had three children--two boys, Alexander (whom everyone called Hunky) and Tommy, and a girl, Frances. They were little children when their mother died. Later, when Ruth Porter, my mother, came to Fairfax to visit her sister, who worked as a cook and housekeeper for my Grandma Tall Chief, Daddy was Fairfax's most eligible bachelor. Mother must have arrived tired and dusty from her long journey, but from what I'm told there was an instant attraction between them. Link to comment
Paul Parish Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Tallchief in Pas de dix [with Eglevsky]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=ST3C9SixavU&NR=1 Link to comment
MakarovaFan Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Terribly sad news. RIP, Miss Tallchief. Thank you, Mme. Hermine, for posting the "Firebird" clip. Whenever I think of Maria Tallchief, this magical clip pops into my mind. Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/ct-ent-0413-tallchief-obit-20130413,0,819750.story Link to comment
Cygnet Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 I remember seeing her in clips of "The Four Temperaments," and "Scotch Symphony." She was a phenomenal ballerina and a national treasure. She will be sorely missed. Maria Tallchief, rest in peace. Link to comment
Bonnette Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Sad news, indeed. She looks so vibrant in the photo accompanying her obituary (thank you for that link, Mme. Hermine). She was a formative influence for so many. I loved her and wish her godspeed. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 What a loss. Truly a national treasure. Requiescat in pace, Maria Tallchief. Link to comment
Dale Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 A great ballerina. My mother saw her dance many times and never forgot her. I witnessed several coaching lectures she gave. Her carriage and the imagery she spoke of always had an instant effect on the dancers. During one of the symposiums Jacques d'Amboise paid tribute to her: “We never had an international ballet star in America until Maria. What made it more magnificent was that she was a true Native American. There was Danilova, but she was Russian, and Alonso, but she was Cuban. Maria was our first star. And it was “Firebird” that launched her in that stratosphere.” Link to comment
Amy Reusch Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 When Balanchine was at the Paris Opera, was not Tallchief with him and dancing? Was she the first American to do so? Also, wasn't Nureyev's North American debut with Tallchief? (Please correct me if I'm wrong... I don't trust my memory) Augusta Maywood was first on the stage at POB,(1839) , but perhaps Tallchief was next? (Thanks, Nancy, for joggingbmy memory). http://michaelminn.net/andros/biographies/maywood_augusta/ Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/maria-tallchief-baallet-star-who-was-inspiration-for-balanchine-dies-at-88/2013/04/12/5888f3de-c5dc-11df-94e1-c5afa35a9e59_story.html Link to comment
Ray Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/maria-tallchief-baallet-star-who-was-inspiration-for-balanchine-dies-at-88/2013/04/12/5888f3de-c5dc-11df-94e1-c5afa35a9e59_story.html A better obit than the Chicago one. Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 And from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/arts.dance.maria.tallchief-brilliant-ballerina-dies-at-88.html?pagewanted=all Link to comment
pherank Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 And from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.c...?pagewanted=all The NY Times link has changed to: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/arts/dance/maria-tallchief-brilliant-ballerina-dies-at-88.html Link to comment
Jayne Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Watching the youtube videos, you can't take your eyes off of her. She was never boring, that's for sure. More importantly, she always looked like she was having a ball on stage. Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 The story in the Huffington Post has a slideshow with some wonderful photos - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/12/maria-tallchief-dead-ballet-legenddies-at-88_n_3070910.html#slide=more291682 Link to comment
Neryssa Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 The story in the Huffington Post has a slideshow with some wonderful photos - http://www.huffingto...lide=more291682 Thank you for this link but does photo no. 16 look like Tallchief? Anyway, I was shaken by the news of her death even though she lived a long and productive life. Another great Balanchine muse gone... Link to comment
pherank Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 The NYTimes.com front page has the following lead in: Maria Tallchief, Balanchine Ballerina, Dies Ms. Tallchief, a daughter of an Oklahoma oil family, found her way to New York and became one of the most brilliant American ballerinas of the century. She was 88. I take exception to the declaration that all her importance lies with Balanchine - there's nothing without Balanchine! - which is just wrong. I'm an admirer of Balanchine the artist, but these other people had lives, and long careers, and there is so much more to a life than "they danced under Balanchine". I've always thought of Tallchief as being the first American Prima Ballerina. That's big. That's enough. She also happened to have been trained by Russians, and danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and so had a Russian-style of stage presence that wasn't seen in any of the following Amercian dancers - a grandes dame. And her father was never an "oil man" to my knowledge. When oil was found on Osage lands, they eventually sold out, "packed up the truck, and moved to Beverly - HIlls that is." Very American. Link to comment
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