November is Native American Heritage Month so I want to talk about the perfume worn by one of the greatest American ballerinas of all time, Maria Tallchief.

Early life

A little back story: Maria Tallchief was born in Oklahoma in 1925. She was a member of the Osage Nation on her father’s side. Her great grandfather had brokered oil deals for the Osage so her father’s family had grown up wealthy and never had to work. It was the opposite for her mom who was Scotch-Irish.

Her mom grew up poor and lamented that she never got to take dance lessons, so she signed her daughters up for ballet. A really bad ballet teacher put Maria en pointe when she was just 5 and not at all ready so she’s lucky she didn’t get hurt. She graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1942 and was able to get a small role in a Judy Garland film. But the LA life wasn’t for her and she moved to New York City at age 17.

Prima Ballerina

There she started dancing in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo which was the premier Russian ballet – and it was there that she met the super famous choreographer George Balanchine.

It became a muse situation and she followed him to the New York City Ballet a few years later where she became the first prima ballerina ever – and let me repeat. There’s no qualifier there, she wasn’t just the first Native prima ballerina, she was the very first one in America.

The Sugar Plum Fairy

And she was the originator of the Sugar Plum Fairy in George Balenchine’s version of the Nutcracker and their partnership is what made the nutcracker so popular in the US as well as a Christmas tradition.

Ok on to the perfume. Balenchine and Tallchief got married when he was 42 and she was 21 and according to her memoir he liked to pick out clothes for her and he was actually the one who chose the perfume that she wore for the rest of her life.

L’Heure Blue by Guerlain

That was L’Heure Blue by Guerlain. She wrote: “One afternoon, we went to the House of Guerlain. George [Balanchine] wanted to choose a perfume for me. We sampled several before he settled on L’Heure Bleue (the expression the French have for twilight), a beautiful, subtle fragrance that I still use today. George dabbed some on my neck below my ear and lowered his head. His lips softly touched mine. The solemnity with which he conducted the perfume ritual, and the unexpected display of affection, was a surprise and was more fulfilling because of that. I felt gratified and loved”

L’Heure Blue is one you can still get and it’s powdery with a warm spice and is violet forward. From my collection the most similar would be Frida, Boleyn, or Unhallowed Art.

Happy Native American Heritage Month! Do yourself a favor and read more about Maria Tallchief because she had a fascinating life.