1. The San Francisco Ballet was the first ballet company in the United States.
2. It was the first company to perform the Nutcracker in the U. S. in 1944.
I love the Nutcracker and ballet in general. I can trace this love to the moment I saw the Nutcracker live and in person.
I was five. And I saw the San Francisco Ballet production.
Maria Tallchief in Swan Lake. (credit: Martha Swope)
Maria Tallchief, the first Native American prima ballerina, was the Sugarplum Fairy, a role created for her (as was the role of the Firebird) by her husband, George Balanchine. I don't remember a whole lot, but I remember enough to know, from that moment on I wanted to be a ballerina.The story goes Mom thought I'd fall asleep, but apparently I sat on her lap for the whole show, fascinated. At the point where the prince first leaps onto the stage I turned to her and said, "But Mommy, he has no pants on!"
When we got home, Dad played the Nutcracker Suite on the record player. Apparently I danced and danced and danced, remembering and imitating things I'd just seen. From that moment on, I wanted to go up on my toes and wear those pretty costumes.
Seven years later I finally got the chance to take dance lessons when an English woman, a Mrs. Whitehill, opened a dance school. I was 12. Every Saturday I commuted all the way from St. John to St. Thomas (all by myself) to take dance. I took four years of ballet with her before she closed her school. Unfortunately I never got up on my toes. My feet, my body weren't built right.
About the time Mrs. Whitehill closed up shop, the St. Thomas School of Dance opened. I started going there and switched from ballet to tap, which I took for another four years. So once a week for eight years my feet and I got to play. I was in several major (for St. Thomas) productions. But those are stories for another time.
