Marjorie Tallchief (1926-2021) was an Osage Nation Indian Prima Ballerina as was her sister Marie Tallchief. A unique item of Ballet history.

These are Marjorie’s used toe shoes that were sent to artist Jon Corbino, N.A. (1905-1964) known for his ballet paintings in 1959 by Marjorie and Jon’s mutual ballerina friend Elise Reiman Hotchkiss (1911-1993).

Marjorie Tallchief and troupe performed March 14-15, 1959 at the Denver Auditorium Theatre now know as the DCPA Denver Center of the Performing Arts.

Postmarked 4/16/1959 from Rockport. Originally postmarked from Denver Apr 14, 1959 to Mr. Jon Corbino, 5 Marmion Way, Rockport, MA, the post office in Rockport forwarded it to our winter address 4879 Commonwealth Dr., Sarasota, FL.

I didn’t show the image of the handwritten message on the verso of the postcard as I don’t want someone else to use it saying their used toe shoes belonged to Marjorie Tallchief. But it is included in the sale –the original postcard. The text is:

Dear Jon: Sorry to be so slow in sending you the ballet slippers. They belonged to Marjorie Tallchief. She was guest artist with the Chicago opera ballet group here on tour. She lives in Paris and is the first Ballerina to be premiere of the Paris Opera – so the slippers have been well danced in! I left N.Y. right after I talked to you so didn’t have a chance to go to the Rehn Gallery. Sorry to miss your show in April. I heard Frandenthal had had an incurable tumor on the brain was nice to talk to you—hope I’ll see you sometime when I come east. Elise. 

The date is unknown when Elise mailed the shoes. I suspect Elisa asked Marjorie for the shoes for Corbino when she saw Tallchief and her troupe in Denver performing March 14 and 15^th, 1959. See the two corresponding images of the newspaper articles when they performed at the Denver Auditorium Theatre now know as the DCPA Denver Center of the Performing Arts.

I googled the “anatomy of a Pointe Shoe” for some of the below terminology to better describe the used condition.

The shoes themselves are well-worn Pavlowa (named after the dancer Anna Pavlowa) model by Capezio size 3E. They are pink satin and stained with sweat and other performance stains/dirt. One perforation hole at the toe box. The ribbons are creased as they were tied in a bow and hung in Corbino’s studio and our home. I didn’t iron the creases out of the ribbons as I didn’t want to set the stained ribbons with an iron—in case the new collector/owner wanted to have the shoes professionally cleaned by a conservator.

In the past dancers sewed on their own ribbons, slashed the leather shank with a razor blade and stitched the platform of the toe box with thread to give them more stability on the floor to avoid slipping.

The cotton liner on top of the shank in the interior (says Pavlowa/Capezio) is detached toward the toe but still adhered toward the heel—both shoes

The two ends of the drawstring are present on each shoe although my images don’t show both ends.

In some of the images—I mixed up the right and left shoe—I attached 16 images of the shoes which show the entire condition if I have not described them above.

Elise Reiman, Teacher Of Ballet, Dies at 79

Aug. 28, 1993 New York Times

Elise Reiman, a longtime teacher at the School of American Ballet, died on Thursday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was 79. The cause was an aneurysm, said Norman E. Kappler, her nephew. Miss Reiman, who lived in New York, was taken to the hospital after she became ill on vacation in Winthrop, Me. Miss Reiman, who was born in Terre Haute, Ind., studied with Adolph Bolm in San Francisco and danced in his 1928 production of "Apollon Musagete." She also studied at the School of American Ballet in its earliest years and danced with the American Ballet in 1935 and 1936 and with Ballet Society from 1946 to 1948. Both companies were forerunners of the New York City Ballet; like it, they were formed by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Miss Reiman taught children's and beginning point classes from 1945 to 1953 and from 1964 through this summer. A keen-eyed teacher with a wry, deceptively lazy humor, she received the school's Mae L. Wien Award for distinguished service, in 1992. Miss Reiman performed in the original productions of Balanchine's "Four Temperaments" and "Divertimento." She was married to Charles W. Hotchkiss, who died in 1963. In addition to her nephew, she is survived by two stepsons, Frank Hotchkiss of Los Angeles and Charles Warner Hotchkiss 3d of Darien, Conn.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marjorie Tallchief (born Marjorie Louise Tall Chief; October 19, 1926 – November 30, 2021) was an American ballerina and member of the Osage Nation. She was the younger sister of the late prima ballerina, Maria Tallchief, and was the first Native American to be named "première danseuse étoile" in the Paris Opera Ballet.

Tallchief was born October 19, 1926, in Denver, Colorado, while her parents, Alexander Tall Chief and his wife, Ruth (née Porter), were on a family vacation with her older siblings, brother Gerald and sister Maria. She grew up in Fairfax, Oklahoma, until 1933, when her family moved to Los Angeles so she and her sister could train in ballet dancing. She trained with Bronislava Nijinska and David Lichine. Her father was a member of the Osage Nation, while her mother was of Scottish-Irish descent.

After completing her training in Los Angeles, Tallchief began performing for several dance companies. In the book American Indian Ballerinas, Lili Cockerille Livingston wrote that Tallchief had her professional debut with Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant's Ballet Theatre as a first year soloist, in 1944. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, these included: "the American Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (1946–47), the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas (1948–55), Ruth Page's Chicago Opera Ballet (guest artist, 1958–62), and the Harkness Ballet (prima ballerina, 1964–66). Her most acclaimed roles were performed in Night Shadow (1950), Annabel Lee (1951), Idylle (1954), Romeo and Juliet (1955), and Giselle (1957)."^[

Tallchief was the first American and Native American to be "première danseuse étoile" of the Paris Opera Ballet and performed with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. During her career she also performed for dignitaries such as U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and French President Charles de Gaulle. Tallchief taught at Dallas Civic Ballet Academy, later known as the Dallas Ballet. After her retirement from the stage, she acted as a dance director for the Dallas Ballet, the Chicago Ballet School, and the Harid Conservatory until 1993.She and her sister Maria also co-founded the Chicago City Ballet in 1980.

In 1991, Tallchief was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. In October 1997, she and her elder sister Maria, along with Moscelyne Larkin, Rosella Hightower, and Yvonne Chouteau, were named Oklahoma Treasures at the Governor's Arts Awards. A bronze statue of her along with the other Five Moons were unveiled in 2007 on the grounds of the Tulsa Historical Society.

Tallchief had two children with her husband, the director and choreographer George Skibine (1920-1981), whom she married in 1947. She lived in Boca Raton, Florida, where she died on November 30, 2021, at the age of 95.