\n<\/p>\n
In 1946, Tallchief and Balanchine married: It would be the most wonderful thing, she remembered him saying in her 1997 memoir, and they could work together. The Russia-born Balanchine was enchanted by her Native American heritage, feeling it brought him closer to being American himself. When they visited her grandmother in Oklahoma, Tallchief wrote in her memoir, he was given a turquoise bracelet and put it right on his wrist. (He wore it nearly every day for over 30 years.) \u201cWhen Grandma saw how happy it made him, she said she\u2019d bead him a belt,\u201d Tallchief wrote.<\/p>\n
At the end of her Ballet Russe contract, Tallchief joined Balanchine and his new company as its leading dancer. Their marriage ended in an annulment filed in 1951, and signed on the day rehearsals began for that romantic \u201cScotch Symphony\u201d pas de deux a year later. But Balanchine continued to create commanding roles for her like the Sugarplum Fairy in \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d and the lead in \u201cAllegro Brillante.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she was married to Balanchine, she felt confined by how much her personal and professional lives were conjoined. \u201cBut now I was beginning to realize that there was another personage with whom my life as a woman was bound up,\u201d she wrote in her memoir. \u201cAnd that figure was Maria Tallchief, prima ballerina.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hel\u00e9ne Alexopoulos, a former New York City Ballet principal who was coached by Tallchief, said that her fame arose in an era when she was not the obvious prima ballerina. \u201cShe was so clearly American,\u201d Alexopoulous said, at a time when the best dancers came from Europe. \u201cShe broke that ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that depiction of American-ness, especially in the media, often included a problematic portrayal of her Native American heritage. Time magazine praised her \u201cgusto with flawless technique,\u201d before noting that \u201coffstage, she is as American as wampum and apple pie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paschen, a poet, writes about the complexities of her mother\u2019s life as an artist and Native American woman. From \u201cHeritage IX,\u201d in \u201cBlood Wolf Moon\u201d (2025), Paschen writes of the headlines in \u201947: \u201c\u2018Peau Rouge Danse a l\u2019Opera.\u2019\/Peau Rouge, Red Skin\/a phrase she learned\/to ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n