In 1946 Tolchief and Balanchine have been getting married: it could be probably the most great factor, she recalled his phrases in her 1997 memoir, they usually might work collectively. The Russian-born Balanchine was fascinated by his Native American heritage, feeling it introduced him nearer to being American himself. Once they visited her grandmother in Oklahoma, Talchief writes in her memoir, they gave him a turquoise bracelet and positioned it proper on his wrist. (He wore it nearly day by day for greater than 30 years.) “When Grandma noticed how comfortable it made him, she stated she was going to stitch him a belt,” Tolchief wrote.
On the finish of her contract with the Ballet Russe, Tolchief joined Balanchine and his new firm as its principal dancer. Their marriage led to an annulment filed in 1951. and signed on the day rehearsals started for this romantic “Scottish Symphony” pa de deux a yr later. However Balanchine continued to create main roles for her such because the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and the title function in Allegro Brilliante.
When she was married to Balanchine, she felt constrained by the extent to which her private {and professional} lives have been intertwined. “However now I used to be starting to appreciate that there was one other particular person with whom my life as a girl was linked,” she wrote in her memoirs. “And that determine was Maria Tolchief, prima ballerina.”
Helen Alexopoulos, a former principal of the New York Metropolis Ballet who was educated by Tolchief, stated her fame arose in an period when she was not the plain prima ballerina. “She was so distinctly American,” Alexopoulos stated, at a time when the perfect dancers got here from Europe. “She broke that ceiling.”
However this portrayal of Americanness, particularly within the media, typically included a problematic portrayal of her Native American heritage. Time journal praised her “pleasure with impeccable method” earlier than noting that “offstage, she’s as American as wampum and apple pie.”
Paschen, a poet, writes concerning the complexities of her mom’s life as an artist and a Native American. From “Legacy IX,” in “Blood Wolf Moon” (2025), Paschen writes of the titles in ’47: “‘Peau Rouge Danse a l’Opera.’/Peau Rouge, Purple Pores and skin/a phrase she realized/ to disregard.”
