Person
Biography
Yvonne Chouteau, a former principal dancer of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo who emerged as one of a celebrated group of dancers known as the American Indian ballerinas of Oklahoma, died on January 24, 2016 at her home in Oklahoma City at age 86. Part French and part Shawnee-Cherokee, she was born into a pioneering Southwestern family in Fort Worth, a descendant of Jean Pierre Chouteau who established Oklahoma’s first white settlement in 1796. A child prodigy as a dancer—she liked to joke that if reversed, the syllables in her surname, “Chou-teau” became “Toe-shoe”—she started dancing when she was 2-1/2 years old. She received early training in Oklahoma and then in New York City’s School of American Ballet. She was accepted into the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at 14, becoming the company’s youngest dancer at the time. It was while she was still a company member that she made back-to-back appearances at the Pillow in 1953, appearing in two notable premieres: Gilbert Reed’s
The Shropshire Lad and Antony Tudor’s
Little Improvisations. Chouteau married fellow Ballet Russe dancer Miguel Terekhov in 1956 and left the company the next year. Together they founded the School of Dance at the University of Oklahoma as well as the Oklahoma City Civic Ballet, precursor of today’s Oklahoma City Ballet. Both made memorable appearances in the acclaimed 2005 film documentary
Ballets Russes.
Source of Biography
Written by Norton Owen for Jacob's Pillow Remembers.
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