Yvonne Chouteau

Myra Yvonne Chouteau (/ʃuːˈtoʊ/) (March 7, 1929 – January 24, 2016) was an American ballerina and one of the "Five Moons" or Native prima ballerinas of Oklahoma. She was the only child of Corbett Edward and Lucy Annette Chouteau. She was born March 7, 1929, in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1943, she became the youngest dancer ever accepted to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where she worked for fourteen years. In 1962, she and her husband, Miguel Terekhov, founded the first fully accredited university dance program in the United States, the School of Dance at the University of Oklahoma.[1] A member of the Shawnee Tribe, she also had French ancestry, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Maj. Jean Pierre Chouteau. From the Chouteau family of St. Louis, he established Oklahoma's oldest European-American settlement, at the present site of Salina, in 1796.[2] She grew up in Vinita, Oklahoma.[3]

Yvonne Chouteau
Born
Myra Yvonne Chouteau

March 7, 1929
Fort Worth, Texas
DiedJanuary 24, 2016(2016-01-24) (aged 86)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
NationalityShawnee Tribe (American)
EducationSchool of American Ballet
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Known forBallet
AwardsNational Cultural Treasures Award
Oklahoma Hall of Fame

Career

Chouteau was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 7, 1929. Her father, Corbett Chouteau, worked for an oil company, while her mother, Lucy Annette (née Taylor), was a schoolteacher.[4][5][3][2] Inspired to dance at age four after seeing the great ballerina Alexandra Danilova dance in Oklahoma City, Chouteau studied at the School of American Ballet in New York before Danilova recommended her in 1943 to Serge Denham for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. At 14, she was the youngest dancer ever accepted.[6] Her first solo role was as Prayer in Coppelia. (1945). At age 18, she was the youngest member inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

In 1956, Chouteau married dancer Miguel Terekhov. Her first husband was flutist and conductor Claude Monteux, though their brief marriage was annulled.[7] After she had her first child with Terekhov, they moved to Oklahoma City.[8] Together they organized the Oklahoma City Civic Ballet (now Oklahoma City Ballet). In 1962, they established the first fully accredited dance department in the United States at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma.[9] She was featured in Ballets Russes, a documentary film by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.[10][11] She died after a long illness on January 24, 2016.[12] During her career, she worked with such noted choreographers as George Balanchine, Leonide Massine, Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, and Bronislava Nijinska.[2]

Legacy and honors

Governor Frank Keating designated her an Oklahoma Treasure on October 8, 1997.[13] She is portrayed in the mural Flight of Spirit, by Chickasaw artist Mike Larsen in the Oklahoma Capitol Rotunda, and in The Five Moons, a set of bronze sculptures by artist Gary Henson on the west lawn of the Tulsa Historical Society.[14]

When the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian opened in Washington, D.C., in 2004, Chouteau was honored with the inaugural National Cultural Treasures Award, celebrating her contribution to the nation's cultural heritage.[15]

Further reading
  • Brittan, Shawnee; Champlin, Joanna M; Bingham, Drake (2000). En pointe : the lives and legacies of ballet's Native Americans. [Videorecording]

References
  1. Anderson, Jack (2012-01-09). "Miguel Terekhov, Dancer With Ballets Russes, Dies at 83". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
  2. Vincent, Melissa. "Chouteau, Myra Yvonne (1929-2016 )" Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. Archived 2009-08-04 at the Wayback Machine 2009. Accessed February 2, 2009.
  3. Livingston, Lili Cockerille. American Indian Ballerinas. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999: 56.
  4. Cruickshank, Judith (February 9, 2016). "Yvonne Chouteau obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved October 23, 2021. Chouteau was born in Texas, the only child of Corbett Chouteau, who worked for an oil company, and his wife, Lucy (nee Taylor), a schoolteacher.
  5. Anderson, Jack (January 29, 2016). "Yvonne Chouteau, Native American Ballerina, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 6, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2021. Part French and part Shawnee-Cherokee, Myra Yvonne Chouteau was born into a pioneering Southwestern family in Fort Worth on March 7, 1929, the only child of Corbett Edward Chouteau and the former Lucy Annette Taylor.
  6. "Tulsa People, The Indian Ballerinas, May 2007". Tulsapeople-digital.com. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  7. Cruickshank, Judith (February 9, 2016). "Yvonne Chouteau obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved October 23, 2021. They married in 1956, Chouteau's earlier brief marriage to the musician Claude Monteux having been annulled.
  8. DeLeon, Jenefar. "Five Indian Ballerinas." NewsOK. Archived 2012-10-11 at the Wayback Machine Accessed August 28, 2016.
  9. "Revolver Group - Balle Russe". Archived from the original on 2007-12-28. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  10. "Zeitgeist Films" (PDF). Zeitgeistfilms.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  11. Foundas, Scott (2005-02-17). "Variety Feb. 17, 2005". Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  12. "OU dance school founder Yvonne Chouteau dies at 86 - OUDaily.com: News". OUDaily.com. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  13. Hardy, Camille (1998). "Dance Magazine, February 1998". Dance Magazine. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  14. "Tulsa Historical Society, "Five Moons Rising"". Archived from the original on August 12, 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  15. "Oklahoma Arts Council, News release, September 14, 2004". State.ok.us. Archived from the original on 2006-12-16. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
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