Born: 10 January 1920, United States
Died: 4 November 2008
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
Rosella Hightower was an American ballerina who achieved fame in the United States and Europe. Along with Yvonne Chouteau, Moscelyne Larkin, and sisters Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief, she was one of the “Five Moons”, Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma who gained international fame in the 20th century.
Russian choreographer and ballet dancer Léonide Massine invited Hightower to join a new ballet company he was forming, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In the company, she was guided by Massine who recognized her hard work and ability to learn quickly. After the start 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 (also known as the Original Ballet Russe). Hightower received critical acclaim after a March 1947 performance of Giselle by the Original Ballet Russe at the Metropolitan Opera House. When 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. John Martin of The New York Times called her performance “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.
In 1947, she accepted an invitation to join a new ballet company, 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. Choreographer Bronislava Nijinska choreographed for Hightower the “glitteringly virtuosic” Rondo Capriccioso. Along with classic dances, Hightower’s performances included Piège de Lumière 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. That year, she opened the École supérieure de danse de Cannes, which became one of Europe’s leading ballet schools. Hightower later directed several major companies, including the Marseilles Ballet (1969–1972), the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre of Nancy (1973–1974), the Paris Opéra Ballet (1980-1983) and the La Scala Ballet of Milan (1985–1986).