By Darla Shelden, Metropolis Sentinel Reporter —
OKLAHOMA CITY – The College of Oklahoma Faculty of Dance and the Weitzenhoffer Household Faculty of Superb Arts will current the inaugural 5 Moons Dance Pageant, to be held on August 27 – 29. The competition honors the 5 famend Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma often called the 5 Moons
The occasion will probably be held on the College of Oklahoma Norman campus.
The competition honors Maria Tallchief, Marjorie Tallchief, Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin and Yvonne Chouteau. These dancers every established distinguished careers within the dance world through the twentieth century.
The inaugural competition will spotlight each Maria and Marjorie Tallchief and their legacies.
In accordance with the press launch, the 5 Moons Dance Pageant means to encourage the neighborhood’s curiosity in studying extra concerning the 5 Moons’ accomplishments and to offer a platform for female-identifying choreographers from traditionally underrepresented populations to current their work, thereby contributing to the way forward for feminine management in dance.
The Norman competition will embrace a gap night time reception on the Boyd Home, 407 W. Boyd on Friday, on Aug. 27; a collection of panel discussions and academic occasions with dance artists and students on Saturday, Aug. 28 on the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Artwork, 555 Elm Avenue; and culminate in a dance efficiency on Sunday, Aug. 29 within the Elsie C. Brackett Theatre, at 563 Elm Avenue.
Performing teams will embrace American Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, Oklahoma Metropolis Ballet, Osage Ballet, and college students from the OU Faculty of Dance.
Highlighted choreographers will embrace Jerome Robbins awardee Stefanie Batten Bland, Osage Ballet’s Jenna Smith, Princess Grace awardee Rena Butler, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Oklahoma Metropolis Ballet principal dancer DaYoung Jung.
The time period “5 Moons” is derived from a ballet created by Cherokee composer Louis Ballard Sr. known as The 4 Moons that was carried out on the second Oklahoma Indian Ballerina Pageant in 1967.
The Oklahoma Indian Ballerina Festivals have been held in 1957 and 1967 to have fun milestone anniversaries of Oklahoma’s statehood.
The 4 Moons, which was carried out by 4 of the ballerinas, excluding Maria Tallchief who had retired from performing, included solos honoring the heritage of every dancer.
Celebrated Native American artist Jerome Tiger created a portray titled The 4 Moons, which was this system cowl for the 1967 Oklahoma Indian Ballerinas Pageant.
The 5 Moons have additionally been honored in a mural titled Flight of Spirit by Chickasaw painter Make Larsen, situated within the rotunda of the Oklahoma State Capitol and a bronze sculpture set up in Tulsa by Oklahoma artist Gary Henson titled The 5 Moons. 4 of the 5 Moons have been inducted into the Oklahoma Corridor of Fame.
Every of the 5 Moons had notable performing careers, all dancing with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and different famend firms in the US and overseas.
Along with being trailblazers on this planet {of professional} ballet, the 5 Moons contributed to the way forward for the artwork type by instructing the subsequent era of dancers and founding or main a number of main ballet colleges and corporations, lots of that are nonetheless lively as we speak, the discharge acknowledged.
Moscelyne Larkin, a member of the Shawnee-Peoria tribe, co-founded the Tulsa Ballet along with her husband, Roman Jasinski, in 1956. Rosella Hightower, of Choctaw descent, based the Middle for Classical Dance, in Cannes, France, in 1962, and in 1981, she turned the primary American director of the Paris Opera Ballet.
Yvonne Chouteau, of Shawnee and Cherokee heritage, established OU’s Division of Dance, now the OU Faculty of Dance, in 1963 along with her husband, Miguel Terekhov. She additionally based the Oklahoma Metropolis Civic Ballet, now often called Oklahoma Metropolis Ballet, in 1963.
This yr’s competition could have a particular deal with honoring the Tallchief sisters, Maria and Marjorie, each of the Osage Nation. Maria Tallchief based Chicago Metropolis Ballet in 1974.
Maria Tallchief is extensively thought of to be America’s first prima ballerina. George Balanchine created a number of roles for her throughout her time as a principal dancer at New York Metropolis Ballet, together with her signature The Firebird.
Marjorie Tallchief was the primary Native American dancer to develop into a première danseuse étoile on the famend Paris Opera Ballet. She served because the director of dance on the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida, from 1989 to 1993. She was introduced with a distinguished service award from OU in 1992. Marjorie is the final surviving member of the 5 Moons and resides in Boca Raton.
Through the competition, attendees will seeexcerpts fromthe Osage ballet Wahzhazhe, produced by Randy Tinker Smith and choreographed by Jenna Smith, each of Osage descent.
Roman Jasinski (Shawnee, Peoria) acted as adviser on the venture. The music for the ballet was composed by Lou Brock (Osage) and Joseph Rivers and organized by Rivers. Costumes have been designed and created by Wendy Ponca (Osage) and the late Terry Wann (Osage). Backdrop designer and painter was Alexandra Ponca Inventory (Osage).
Stefanie Batten Bland, Jerome Robbins awardee, is an interdisciplinary international artist who refers to modern and historic tradition whereas positioning her work on the intersections of dance-theatre, movie and set up. A 2023 Baryshnikov Arts Middle commissioned artist, and 2023 Toulmin Creator for New York College’s Middle for the Ballet Arts, Batten Bland is a choreographer for American Ballet Theatre’s inaugural Ladies’s Motion Initiative. She created Firm SBB in Paris in 2008 and established it in New York Metropolis late in 2011.
Former tribal liaison on the OU Workplace of Range and Inclusion and 5 Moons Dance Pageant planning committee member Warren Queton mentioned, “A dance competition honoring and celebrating the legacy of the 5 Moons ballerinas is lengthy overdue. American Indian individuals are a dancing folks and all the time have been.
“Dance is a vital a part of our id,” Queton added. “You will need to acknowledge and encourage expertise aspiring to observe within the footsteps of the 5 Moons and develop into ballet dancers and choreographers in a discipline the place American Indians are an underrepresented inhabitants.”
Initially based in 1963 by former Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo principal dancers Yvonne Chouteau and Miguel Terekhov, the OU Faculty of Dance is dwelling to one of many main applications within the nation for coaching in ballet and trendy methods.
Undergraduate and graduate dance majors, together with basic schooling college students, complete roughly 1,000 enrollees in dance lessons per semester, that are held within the faculty’s state-of-the-art services within the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Middle. The Faculty of Dance boasts
Tickets for the 5 Moons Dance Pageant can be found for buy at ou.edu/finearts/universitytheatre or by calling the OU Superb Arts Field Workplace at 405-325-4101. For extra data, go to dance.ou.edu/fivemoonsfest.
