Five Moons
The most well-known and significant tribute is the Five Moons (2007), a bronze sculpture installation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that portrays the five ballerinas.
Other tributes include the Flight of Spirit mural in the Oklahoma State Capital and dance festivals in their honor.
Yvonne Chouteau (Shawnee Tribe, 1929–2016), born in Fort Worth, Texas but grew up in Vinita, Oklahoma.
Yvonne is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Maj. Jean Pierre Chouteau, who established Oklahoma's oldest white settlement in present-day Salina.
[2] In 1956, Chouteau married Miguel Terekhov, who was a professional dancer for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
She worked with renowned choreographers like, George Balanchine, Leonide Massine, Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, and Bronislav Nijinska.
Some of her most famous roles include, the Glove Seller in Gaite Parisienne, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Les Sylphide, Pas de Quatre, and Romeo and Juliet.
During the Silver Anniversary Statehood Day Parade she was named the “Daughter of Oklahoma, Good Will Ambassadress to the World at Large."
Her parents were Ruben Larkin, a Shawnee-Peoria Indian, and Eva Matlagova-Larkin, who was a dancer and trained Moscelyne until her mid-teens.
When her and her family moved back to the United States, she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1948, where she had many leading roles.
Her great-grandfather, Peter Bigheart, was one of the people who helped make the Osage tribe wealthy, by negotiating with the US government about their oil reserves.
Her parents, Alexander and Ruth Porter Tall Chief and her two siblings, Gerald and Marjorie, all moved to Los Angeles, California so the girls could get the best ballet training.
[9] Tallchief primarily learned from Ernest Belcher until the age of 12, then studied with Madame Bronislava Nijinska and David Lichine.
After graduating from High School, Tallchief moved to New York to be an apprentice for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
Oklahoma Legislature declared June 29 as Maria Tallchief day in 1953.The Osage tribe named her Princess Wa-Xthe-Thonba which mean “Woman of Two Standards."
[10] Marjorie Tallchief (Osage Nation, 1926–2021[11]) was born during a family vacation to Denver, Colorado, but grew up in Fairfax, Oklahoma.
Her most famous leading roles were in Night Shadow in 1950, Annabel Lee in 1951, Idylle in 1954, Romeo and Juliet in 1955, and Giselle in 1957.
She performed for many heads of state, the most well-known being John F. Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
The ballet, set to music by the Oklahoma native Louis Ballard, a Quapaw-Cherokee composer, consists of four solos that evoke each dancer's tribal heritage.
Chickasaw artist Mike Larsen painted a mural depicting the Five Moons, entitled Flight of Spirit.
[13] One of the last paintings by Muscogee Creek artist Jerome Tiger was The Four Moons, used for the cover of Louis Ballard's ballet program.
The 1967 tempera and casein painting features Chouteau, Hightower, Larkin, and Marjorie Tallchief in a range of dynamic dance positions with four stylized moons, on a solid blue field.
England, inspired by Mike Larsen's mural, desired to create a tribute in bronze to the ballerinas in his hometown of Tulsa.
Henson was provided license by the Ballet and Historical Society to complete the remaining sculptures in his own style, which differed slightly from that of England.
[20] Gary Henson, one of the sculpture’s creators, worked to restore it, including making new moulds for the parts that were never recovered.
