Rosella Hightower
Encyclopedia
Rosella Hightower was an American ballerina
who achieved fame in both the United States and Europe.
. She was the only child of Charles Edgar Hightower and his wife, the former Eula May Flanning. Of Choctaw
heritage, she moved with her family to Kansas City, Missouri
after her father took a new position with the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
. Hightower began her dance training in Kansas City under the instruction of Dorothy Perkins.
After a 1937 appearance by Russian choreographer and ballet dancer Léonide Massine in Kansas City with Wassily de Basil's Ballets Russes
, Massine invited Hightower to join a new ballet company he was forming in Monte Carlo
. Hightower traveled to France at her own expense and discovered that she had been invited for further auditions and had been given no commitment of employment by the group. She was ultimately accepted into the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
where she was guided by Massine who recognized her hard work and ability to learn quickly. There she met André Eglevsky
, her future partner at various dance companies. After the outbreak of World War II, Hightower followed the Ballet Russe to New York City, where she joined the Ballet Theater
in 1941.
She joined the de Basil Ballet in 1946, which was performing under the name Original Ballet Russe. Hightower received acclaim from John Martin
of The New York Times
after a March 1947 performance of Giselle
by the Original Ballet Russe at the Metropolitan Opera House
. After Alicia Markova
, who had been scheduled to dance the title role, became sick, Hightower was called in as her replacement, and learned the part she had never danced before in some five hours of rehearsal with dancer / choreographer Anton Dolin
. Martin's review stated that the "Original Ballet Russe had planned no novelty for the opening of its season... but there was a major one on its program nevertheless. This was the unscheduled first appearance of Rosella Hightower in the title role of Giselle", calling it "a thoroughly admirable achievement, which brought an ovation from the audience". Three days later, Martin's review of Swan Lake
called Hightower "the newest star on the ballet horizon" after her two performances with Dolin and then André Eglevsky as her partner
In 1947, accepted an invitation from the Marquis George de Cuevas
to join a new ballet company, which was variously called the Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo or the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, but was most commonly called the de Cuevas Ballet by theatergoers. The presence there of choreographer Bronislava Nijinska
was one of the major factors in Hightower's decision. Nijinska choreographed for Hightower the "glitteringly virtuosic" Rondo Capriccioso. In addition to classic dances, Hightower's performances included Piège de Lumière by John Taras
, the troupe's choreographer and balletmaster, in which she danced the role of a butterfly in a tropical forest who enchants a group of escaped convicts.
The company disbanded after the 1961 death of de Cuevas, and Hightower largely retired from the stage, though she gave a series of performances in 1962 with Sonia Arova
, Erik Bruhn
and Rudolf Nureyev
. She opened the Centre de Danse Classique in 1962 near her home in Cannes
, which became one of Europe's leading ballet schools. Hightower later directed several major companies, including the Marseilles Ballet from 1969–72, the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre of Nancy in 1973 and 1974, the Paris Opéra Ballet
from 1980 to 1983 and the La Scala Ballet
of Milan
in 1985 and 1986.
She is honored in Tulsa, Oklahoma
, along with four other Native American ballerinas (Yvonne Chouteau
, Moscelyne Larkin
, Maria Tallchief
and Marjorie Tallchief
), with a larger than life-size bronze statue, The Five Moons
in the garden of the Tulsa Historical Society.
She was found dead in her home in Cannes, France on November 4, 2008, and had died either earlier that morning or late the previous night. She had suffered a series of strokes.
Hightower was briefly married to dancer Mischa Resnikov in 1938. She married Jean Robier, a French artist and designer, in 1952; They had one daughter, dancer Dominique Monet Robier (b. 1955).
Ballerina
A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
who achieved fame in both the United States and Europe.
Biography
Rosella Hightower was born in Durwood, Oklahoma, located in Carter County, OklahomaCarter County, Oklahoma
Carter County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2010, the population was 47,557. Its county seat is Ardmore.Carter County is part of the Ardmore, Oklahoma, Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:According to the U.S...
. She was the only child of Charles Edgar Hightower and his wife, the former Eula May Flanning. Of Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
heritage, she moved with her family to Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
after her father took a new position with the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was incorporated May 23, 1870. In its earliest days the MKT was commonly referred to as "the K-T", which was its stock exchange symbol; this common designation soon evolved into "the Katy"....
. Hightower began her dance training in Kansas City under the instruction of Dorothy Perkins.
After a 1937 appearance by Russian choreographer and ballet dancer Léonide Massine in Kansas City with Wassily de Basil's Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
, Massine invited Hightower to join a new ballet company he was forming in Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
. Hightower traveled to France at her own expense and discovered that she had been invited for further auditions and had been given no commitment of employment by the group. She was ultimately accepted into the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1938 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil...
where she was guided by Massine who recognized her hard work and ability to learn quickly. There she met André Eglevsky
André Eglevsky
André Eglevsky was a Russian-born American ballet dancer and teacher.Eglevsky was born in Moscow, but was taken to live in France when he was eight, his mother having decided that his talent as a dancer demanded that he be properly trained...
, her future partner at various dance companies. After the outbreak of World War II, Hightower followed the Ballet Russe to New York City, where she joined the Ballet Theater
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
in 1941.
She joined the de Basil Ballet in 1946, which was performing under the name Original Ballet Russe. Hightower received acclaim from John Martin
John Martin (dance critic)
John Martin became America’s first major dance critic in 1927. Focusing his efforts on propelling the modern dance movement, he greatly influenced the careers of dancers such as Martha Graham...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
after a March 1947 performance of Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
by the Original Ballet Russe at the Metropolitan Opera House
Metropolitan Opera House (39th St)
The Metropolitan Opera House was an opera house located at 1411 Broadway in New York City. Opened in 1883 and demolished in 1967, it was the first home of the Metropolitan Opera Company.-History:...
. After Alicia Markova
Alicia Markova
Dame Alicia Markova, DBE, DMus, was an English ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the...
, who had been scheduled to dance the title role, became sick, Hightower was called in as her replacement, and learned the part she had never danced before in some five hours of rehearsal with dancer / choreographer Anton Dolin
Anton Dolin
Sir Anton Dolin was an English ballet dancer and choreographer.Dolin was born in Slinfold in Sussex as Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey-Kay but was generally known as Patrick Kay. He joined Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1921, was a principal there from 1924, and was a principal...
. Martin's review stated that the "Original Ballet Russe had planned no novelty for the opening of its season... but there was a major one on its program nevertheless. This was the unscheduled first appearance of Rosella Hightower in the title role of Giselle", calling it "a thoroughly admirable achievement, which brought an ovation from the audience". Three days later, Martin's review of Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
called Hightower "the newest star on the ballet horizon" after her two performances with Dolin and then André Eglevsky as her partner
In 1947, accepted an invitation from the Marquis George de Cuevas
George de Cuevas
George de Cuevas was a Chilean-born ballet impresario and choreographer who was best known for the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas that he formed in 1944....
to join a new ballet company, which was variously called the Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo or the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, but was most commonly called the de Cuevas Ballet by theatergoers. The presence there of choreographer Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska - February 22, 1972)) was a Russian dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Polish descent.Nijinska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz and Eleonora Nijinska . Her brother was Vaslav Nijinsky...
was one of the major factors in Hightower's decision. Nijinska choreographed for Hightower the "glitteringly virtuosic" Rondo Capriccioso. In addition to classic dances, Hightower's performances included Piège de Lumière by John Taras
John Taras
John Taras was a prominent American balletmaster and choreographer. Born on the Lower East Side of New York City to Ukrainian parents, he was sent at age 16 to study ballet with Michel Fokine, Anatole Vilzak and Ludmila Shollar, and later to the School of American Ballet...
, the troupe's choreographer and balletmaster, in which she danced the role of a butterfly in a tropical forest who enchants a group of escaped convicts.
The company disbanded after the 1961 death of de Cuevas, and Hightower largely retired from the stage, though she gave a series of performances in 1962 with Sonia Arova
Sonia Arova
Sonia Arova , born was a Bulgarian ballerina.She was born as Sonia Errio in Sofia, Bulgaria, and began her training in Paris. With the beginning of the Second World War, she barely escaped the Nazi advance through a reckless flight which was attacked by German planes...
, Erik Bruhn
Erik Bruhn
Erik Belton Evers Bruhn was a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, company director, actor, and author.- Biography :...
and Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
. She opened the Centre de Danse Classique in 1962 near her home in Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, which became one of Europe's leading ballet schools. Hightower later directed several major companies, including the Marseilles Ballet from 1969–72, the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre of Nancy in 1973 and 1974, the Paris Opéra Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...
from 1980 to 1983 and the La Scala Ballet
Corpo di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala
The La Scala Theatre Ballet is the resident classical ballet company at La Scala in Milan, Italy. One of the oldest and most renowned ballet companies in the world, the company predates the theatre, but was officially founded at the inauguration of La Scala in 1778...
of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in 1985 and 1986.
She is honored in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, along with four other Native American ballerinas (Yvonne Chouteau
Yvonne Chouteau
Myra Yvonne Chouteau is one of the "Five Moons" or Native prima ballerinas of Oklahoma. In 1962 she and her husband founded the first fully accredited university dance program in the United States, at the University of Oklahoma. A member of the Shawnee Tribe, she is also of ethnic French...
, Moscelyne Larkin
Moscelyne Larkin
Moscelyne Larkin is one of the "Five Moons", Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma to gain international fame in the 20th century. After dancing with the Original Ballet Russe and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, she and her husband settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where in 1956 they founded the...
, Maria Tallchief
Maria Tallchief
Maria Tallchief was the first native-American prima ballerina. From 1942 to 1947 she danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, but she is best known for her time with the New York City Ballet from 1947 to 1965.-Early life:...
and Marjorie Tallchief
Marjorie Tallchief
Marjorie Louise Tallchief was a ballerina of the Osage Nation.-Career:Tallchief was the first American Indian 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 politicians such as John F....
), with a larger than life-size bronze statue, The Five Moons
Five Moons
The Five Moons are five Native American ballerinas from the U.S. state of Oklahoma who achieved international prominence during the 20th century. They are Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin, and sisters Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief...
in the garden of the Tulsa Historical Society.
She was found dead in her home in Cannes, France on November 4, 2008, and had died either earlier that morning or late the previous night. She had suffered a series of strokes.
Hightower was briefly married to dancer Mischa Resnikov in 1938. She married Jean Robier, a French artist and designer, in 1952; They had one daughter, dancer Dominique Monet Robier (b. 1955).
External links
- The Ballerina Gallery – Rosella Hightower
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Hightower, Rosella
Obituaries
- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/arts/dance/05hightower.htmlNY Times, Jack AndersonJack Anderson (dance critic)Jack Anderson is an American dance critic and author. Since 1978, he has been a contributor of dance reviews and other articles in The New York Times...
, November 4, 2008]
Reviews
- http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00B1FF63B5E10728DDDA00A94D8415B898FF1D3Sunday NY Times, John MartinJohn Martin (dance critic)John Martin became America’s first major dance critic in 1927. Focusing his efforts on propelling the modern dance movement, he greatly influenced the careers of dancers such as Martha Graham...
, October 29, 1939] - NY Times, November 18, 1939
- http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0A1FFB3C58147B93C6AB1788D85F438485F9NY Times, John MartinJohn Martin (dance critic)John Martin became America’s first major dance critic in 1927. Focusing his efforts on propelling the modern dance movement, he greatly influenced the careers of dancers such as Martha Graham...
, March 24, 1947, Swan LakeSwan LakeSwan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
with DolinAnton DolinSir Anton Dolin was an English ballet dancer and choreographer.Dolin was born in Slinfold in Sussex as Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey-Kay but was generally known as Patrick Kay. He joined Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1921, was a principal there from 1924, and was a principal...
and EglevskyAndré EglevskyAndré Eglevsky was a Russian-born American ballet dancer and teacher.Eglevsky was born in Moscow, but was taken to live in France when he was eight, his mother having decided that his talent as a dancer demanded that he be properly trained...
] - http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40710FD3B58157B93C7AB178FD85F428585F9NY Times, John MartinJohn Martin (dance critic)John Martin became America’s first major dance critic in 1927. Focusing his efforts on propelling the modern dance movement, he greatly influenced the careers of dancers such as Martha Graham...
, April 25, 1956, GiselleGiselleGiselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
with Erik BruhnErik BruhnErik Belton Evers Bruhn was a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, company director, actor, and author.- Biography :...
]