Maria Tallchief, Life with Balanchine, Her Fling with Nureyev
R.I.P Maria Tallchief (Chicago Tribune) she was 88.
Maria 
with Mr. B.
Passion and romance didn’t play a big role…. We saved our emotion for the classroom. And despite his reputation as a much married man obsessed with ballerinas, George was no Don Juan.”
Under Balanchine, Tallchief changed physically. Her neck grew longer. She dropped 10 pounds. She took on the deportment of the Russian stylist. Her chest was high, her back straight, her instep arched. “What did I learn? I learned to turn out. How to point my toes properly. Where I belonged. Where to place my body. What muscles had to be developed — every one. Otherwise there was no way I was going to dance his ballets.”
See Nureyev and Maria Tallchief dance here (Youtube)
Nureyve chose Maria to dance with him for his debut in America..
Nureyev had affairs with the ballerina Maria Tallchief and with Erik Bruhn, long his idol as a dancer and the complicated, often unhappy, love of his life.