📍Fairfax, OK 74637, USA
1925 – 1933“I was born Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief in January 1925 in Fairfax, a small oil town on the Osage reservation in northern Oklahoma. My father, Alexander Tall Chief, was Osage, and my mother, Ruth Porter, was of Scottish and Irish descent. The Osage had become rich from oil on their land, thanks to the headrights my great-grandfather, Peter Bigheart, had helped to secure, and my father seemed to own the whole town, with a theatre, a pool hall and property everywhere. We lived in a ten-room brick house on a hill above the reservation, which people still call the Tallchief Mansion. My younger sister, Marjorie, and I grew up surrounded by the life of the Osage, watching the dances and ceremonies, and by music: my mother was determined that we would have the cultural opportunities she had never had. I started piano lessons at three and ballet soon after, and I was a fine pianist. But the dance teaching in Fairfax was poor, and my mother wanted more for us. In 1933, when I was eight, we drove west to Los Angeles, where we studied with Bronislava Nijinska, who taught me to dance with my whole soul. I went on to New York, where I danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and married George Balanchine, who created roles for me at New York City Ballet, including the Firebird. I became America's first prima ballerina. The Osage Nation honoured me with the name Wa-Xthe-Thonba, Woman of Two Standards, and Oklahoma honours me as one of its Five Moons.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today