{{Short description|Native American ballerina from Oklahoma (1929–2016)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Yvonne Chouteau | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Myra Yvonne Chouteau | birth_date = March 7, 1929 | birth_place = Fort Worth, Texas | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|1|24|1929|3|7}} | death_place = Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | citizenship = Shawnee Tribe and U.S. | known_for = Ballet | training = School of American Ballet<br> Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo | movement = | notable_works = | patrons = | awards = National Cultural Treasures Award <br> Oklahoma Hall of Fame }}
'''Myra Yvonne Chouteau''' ({{IPAc-en|ʃ|uː|ˈ|t|oʊ}}) (March 7, 1929 – January 24, 2016) was a Native American ballerina and one of the "Five Moons" or Native ''prima ballerinas'' of Oklahoma. She was the only child of Corbett Edward and Lucy Annette Chouteau. She was born March 7, 1929, in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1943, she became the youngest dancer ever accepted to the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo, where she worked for fourteen years. In 1962, she and her husband, Miguel Terekhov, founded the first fully accredited university dance program in the United States, the School of Dance at the University of Oklahoma.<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news|first=Jack|last=Anderson|title=Miguel Terekhov, Dancer With Ballets Russes, Dies at 83 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/arts/dance/miguel-terekhov-dancer-with-ballets-russes-dies-at-83.html?_r=1 |work=New York Times |date=2012-01-09 |access-date=2011-01-28}}</ref> A member of the Shawnee Tribe, she also had French ancestry, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Maj. Jean Pierre Chouteau. From the Chouteau family of St. Louis, he established Oklahoma's oldest European-American settlement at the present site of Salina in 1796.<ref name="vincent">[http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/CH059.html Vincent, Melissa. "Chouteau, Myra Yvonne (1929-2016 )" ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture.''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804063309/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/CH059.html |date=2009-08-04 }} 2009. Accessed February 2, 2009.</ref> She grew up in Vinita, Oklahoma.<ref name="aib"/>
==Career== Chouteau was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 7, 1929. Her father Corbett Chouteau worked for an oil company, while her mother Lucy Annette (née Taylor) was a schoolteacher.<ref>{{cite news|last=Cruickshank|first=Judith|title=Yvonne Chouteau obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/09/yvonne-chouteau-obituary|date=February 9, 2016|access-date=October 23, 2021|work=The Guardian|quote=Chouteau was born in Texas, the only child of Corbett Chouteau, who worked for an oil company, and his wife, Lucy (nee Taylor), a schoolteacher.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Anderson|first=Jack|title=Yvonne Chouteau, Native American Ballerina, Dies at 86|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/arts/dance/yvonne-chouteau-native-american-ballerina-dies-at-86.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206051911/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/arts/dance/yvonne-chouteau-native-american-ballerina-dies-at-86.html|archive-date=February 6, 2016|date=January 29, 2016|access-date=October 23, 2021|newspaper=The New York Times|quote=Part French and part Shawnee-Cherokee, Myra Yvonne Chouteau was born into a pioneering Southwestern family in Fort Worth on March 7, 1929, the only child of Corbett Edward Chouteau and the former Lucy Annette Taylor. }}</ref><ref name="aib">Livingston, Lili Cockerille. ''American Indian Ballerinas.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999: 56.</ref><ref name="vincent"/> Inspired to dance at age four after seeing the great ballerina Alexandra Danilova dance in Oklahoma City, Chouteau studied at the School of American Ballet in New York before Danilova recommended her in 1943 to Serge Denham for the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo. At 14, she was the youngest dancer ever accepted.<ref name="TP">{{cite web| title = Tulsa People, The Indian Ballerinas, May 2007| url = http://www.tulsapeople-digital.com/tulsapeople/200705/?pg=60| website = Tulsapeople-digital.com| access-date = 2008-05-26| archive-date = 2011-07-17| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110717112105/http://www.tulsapeople-digital.com/tulsapeople/200705/?pg=60| url-status = dead}}</ref> Her first solo role was as Prayer in ''Coppelia''. (1945). At age 18, she was the youngest member inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
In 1956, Chouteau married dancer Miguel Terekhov. Her first husband was flutist and conductor Claude Monteux, though their brief marriage was annulled.<ref>{{cite news|last=Cruickshank|first=Judith|title=Yvonne Chouteau obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/09/yvonne-chouteau-obituary|date=February 9, 2016|access-date=October 23, 2021|work=The Guardian|quote=They married in 1956, Chouteau’s earlier brief marriage to the musician Claude Monteux having been annulled.}}</ref> After she had her first child with Terekhov, they moved to Oklahoma City.<ref>[http://ndepth.newsok.com/five-indian-ballerinas DeLeon, Jenefar. "Five Indian Ballerinas." NewsOK.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011145956/http://ndepth.newsok.com/five-indian-ballerinas |date=2012-10-11 }} Accessed August 28, 2016.</ref> Together they organized the Oklahoma City Civic Ballet (now Oklahoma City Ballet). In 1962, they established the first fully accredited dance department in the United States at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma.<ref name=RG>{{cite web | title = Revolver Group - Balle Russe | url = http://www.revolvergroup.com/balletsrusses/chouteau.html | access-date = 2008-05-26 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071228111736/http://www.revolvergroup.com/balletsrusses/chouteau.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-12-28}}</ref> She was featured in ''Ballets Russes'', a documentary film by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.<ref name=ZF>{{cite web| title = Zeitgeist Films| url = http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/films/balletsrusses/balletsrusses.presskit.pdf| website = Zeitgeistfilms.com| access-date = 2008-05-26| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080724092610/http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/films/balletsrusses/balletsrusses.presskit.pdf| archive-date = 2008-07-24| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name=V>{{cite news | title = Variety Feb. 17, 2005 | url = https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117926270.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 | access-date = 2008-05-26 | first=Scott | last=Foundas | date=2005-02-17}}</ref> She died after a long illness on January 24, 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oudaily.com/news/ou-dance-school-founder-yvonne-chouteau-dies-at/article_e49afdc4-c45d-11e5-b04b-a351d5f5af99.html |title=OU dance school founder Yvonne Chouteau dies at 86 - OUDaily.com: News |website=OUDaily.com |date=26 January 2016 |access-date=2016-01-27}}</ref> During her career, she worked with such noted choreographers as George Balanchine, Leonide Massine, Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, and Bronislava Nijinska.<ref name="vincent"/>
==Legacy and honors== Governor Frank Keating designated her an Oklahoma Treasure on October 8, 1997.<ref name=DM>{{cite news | title = Dance Magazine, February 1998 | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_n2_v72/ai_20187601 | access-date = 2008-05-26 | work=Dance Magazine | first=Camille | last=Hardy | year=1998}}</ref> She is portrayed in the mural ''Flight of Spirit'' by Chickasaw artist Mike Larsen in the Oklahoma Capitol Rotunda, and in ''The Five Moons,'' a set of bronze sculptures by artist Gary Henson on the west lawn of the Tulsa Historical Society.<ref name=THS>{{cite web|title=Tulsa Historical Society, "Five Moons Rising" |url=http://www.tulsahistory.org/visit/5moons.htm |access-date=2008-05-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070812205656/http://www.tulsahistory.org/visit/5moons.htm |archive-date=August 12, 2007 }}</ref>
When the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian opened in Washington, D.C., in 2004, Chouteau was honored with the inaugural National Cultural Treasures Award, celebrating her contribution to the nation's cultural heritage.<ref name=OAC>{{cite web| title = Oklahoma Arts Council, News release, September 14, 2004| url = http://www.state.ok.us/~arts/news/2004/091404NatlIndian.html| website = State.ok.us| access-date = 2008-05-26| archive-date = 2006-12-16| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061216204927/http://www.state.ok.us/~arts/news/2004/091404NatlIndian.html| url-status = dead}}</ref>
==Further reading== *{{cite book|last1=Brittan|first1=Shawnee|last2=Champlin|first2=Joanna M|last3=Bingham|first3=Drake|title=En pointe : the lives and legacies of ballet's Native Americans|date=2000}} [Videorecording]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.smithandkernke.com/obituary/Yvonne-Chouteau-Terekhov/Oklahoma-City-OK/1583928 Obituary: Smith Kernke Funeral Home]{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} *[http://feeds.newsok.tv/services/player/bcpid66319854001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAACqD3ms~,3I1DNCm2Ps-6kvBen_17H339ssCQk9I-&bctid=622605395001 Video by OkNews: Five Native American Ballerinas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201212032/http://feeds.newsok.tv/services/player/bcpid66319854001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAACqD3ms~,3I1DNCm2Ps-6kvBen_17H339ssCQk9I-&bctid=622605395001 |date=2012-12-01 }} *[http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3426376 Photo: Yvonne Chouteau, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, c. 1948-1949, National Library of Australia] *[http://www.tulsapeople-digital.com/tulsapeople/200705/?pg=60 Photo: The Indian Ballerinas]{{Dead link|date=December 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }} *[http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH059 "Chouteau, Yvonne"], ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'' *[http://www.smithandkernke.com/obituary/Yvonne-Chouteau-Terekhov/Oklahoma-City-OK/1583928 Obituary]{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chouteau, Yvonne}} Category:1929 births Category:2016 deaths Category:Entertainers from Fort Worth, Texas Category:People from Vinita, Oklahoma Category:Artists from Oklahoma City Category:Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers Category:American prima ballerinas Category:American people of French descent Category:Shawnee Tribe people Category:Native American dancers Category:Five Moons Category:20th-century Native American people Category:21st-century Native American people Category:20th-century Native American women Category:21st-century Native American women Category:20th-century American ballet dancers Category:Native American people from Oklahoma Category:Shawnee women