Person
Biography
Rosella Hightower had the distinction of appearing twice in the same Pillow season with two different partners. She made her Pillow debut in July of 1946, dancing two pas de deux with George Skibine (as seen here in a John Lindquist photo of the
Black Swan). The following month, she returned to dance two different pas de deux with Paul Petroff. The bulk of her career was spent in Europe, though she remained proud of her Choctaw roots and her identity as one of five prominent Native American ballerinas (along with Yvonne Chouteau, Moscelyne Larkin, Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief—all of whom also danced here). After retiring from dancing in the early 1960s, she founded a prominent school in Cannes, and went on to direct the Marseilles Ballet, La Scala Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet. In November 2008, Hightower died at her home in Cannes at the age of 88.
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