Marjorie Tallchief

Marjorie Tallchief (born October 19, 1927, Fairfax, Oklahoma, U.S.—died November 30, 2021, Delray Beach, Florida) was a ballerina, dance teacher, and the first American ever to become the première danseuse étoile at the Paris Opéra Ballet.

Tallchief was born in a town on an Osage Indian reservation in Oklahoma to an Osage father and a mother of Scotch-Irish descent. Both Tallchief and her sister, Maria, began dancing as children and later studied with Bronislava Nijinska and David Lichine, among others.

Tallchief began her professional career in 1944 with American Ballet Theatre. She left in 1946 to join the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and reunite with Maria. Both sisters left the company the following year. Between 1947 and 1957 Tallchief danced with the Ballet de Marquis de Cuevas. She joined the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1957, with which she was associated, most notably as the company’s première danseuse étoile, until 1962. In 1964–66 she danced with the Harkness Ballet.

Tallchief’s most famous roles included those in Annabel Lee (1951), Romeo and Juliet (1955), Camille (1958), Pastorale (1961), and Ariadne (1965). She taught at the Dallas Civic Ballet Academy and helped Maria found the Chicago City Ballet (1980). From 1989 to 1993 she was director of dance at the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida.