Her father’s horses running through a meadow of goldenrod on the reservation—that was perfection. A grove of blackjack trees looking ghostly in the Oklahoma sunset—that was perfection, too.
Once . . . long, long ago, the voices of trumpeter swans echoed co-ho, co-ho across the prairie skies. The ancient Osage admired the trumpeter’s graceful beauty and endurance. Migrating south, the huge birds were a spectacular display. They slept with their long, curved necks tucked under their feathers. Then suddenly, they beat their wings and lifted into the sky again to continue their journey.
Sadly, by the time Maria was a child growing up on the reservation, the trumpeters were all but gone. Maria had never seen one. The swans Maria knew were from the fairy tales she danced. In the world of ballet, swans were part-bird, part-woman. They lived in two worlds. So had Maria.
She died on April 11, 2013 at the age of eighty-eight.
TIMELINE OF MARIA’S LIFE
1925 — Maria is born, January 24, in Fairfax, Oklahoma
1926 — Maria’s sister Marjorie is born
1933 — The Tall Chief family moves to Los Angeles
1937 — Maria begins dance lessons with Madame Nijinska
1940 — Madame Nijinska stages Chopin Concerto
Maria is cast as one of the corps
1942 — Maria goes to New York City and joins the Ballet Russe
1943 — Maria performs as soloist in Chopin Concerto with the Ballet Russe; George Balanchine joins the Ballet Russe as the new choreographer
1946 — Maria marries George Balanchine in New York City
1949 — Maria thrills audiences with her performance in Firebird
1951 — Maria and George’s marriage ends
1956 — Maria marries Henry Paschen
1959 — Maria’s daughter Elise is born; Maria’s father dies
1966 — Maria retires from performing
1983 — George Balanchine dies
1996 — Maria receives the Kennedy Center Honors
1997 — Maria publishes her autobiography
1999 — Maria receives a National Medal of the Arts & Humanities from president Bill Clinton
2013 — Maria dies on April 11
TIMELINE OF THE WORLD
1925 — John Baird transmits recognizable faces in an early form of television
1926 — Martha Graham, the American pioneer of the modern-dance revolt, gives her first New York performance
1928 — First Mickey Mouse talking film, Steamboat Willie, releases
1932 — Amelia Earhart makes history as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
1939 — Outbreak of World War II
1941 — Attack on Pearl Harbor
1945 — World War II ends
1947 — Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play Major League Baseball
1954 — Segregation by race in schools is unanimously declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
1955 — Albert Einstein dies
1959 — Alaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th states
1968 — Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated
1982 — The compact disc or “CD” is launched
1996 — Madeleine Albright becomes the first female US Secretary of State
1997 — Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule
1999 — John F. Kennedy, Jr. dies
2009 — Barack Obama becomes first African-American president of the United States
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Who Was Maria Tallchief Page 4
