Maria Tallchief

Maria Tallchief, born in 1925, American ballerina, admired for her brilliant technical command. Born in Fairfax, Oklahoma, she is the daughter of a chief of the Osage tribe and was initially trained as a pianist. Her ballet teachers included Polish choreographer Bronislava Nijinska. Tallchief danced primarily with the New York City Ballet and was married for a time—from 1946 to 1951—to its principal choreographer, George Balanchine. She founded the Chicago City Ballet in 1979. In 1997 she published an autobiography, Maria Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina. Her sister, Marjorie Tallchief, also became a noted ballerina.