Myra Yvonne Chouteau (born March 7, 1929 in Fort Worth, Texas) is one of the "Five Moons" or Native prima ballerinas of Oklahoma. In 1962, she and her husband, Miguel Terekhov, founded the first fully accredited university dance program in the United States, the School of Dance at the University of Oklahoma. A member of the Shawnee Tribe, she is also of ethnic French ancestry, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Maj. Jean Pierre Chouteau. From the Chouteau family of St. Louis, he established Oklahoma's oldest European-American settlement, at the present site of Salina, in 1796. She grew up in Vinita, Oklahoma.
She started dancing when she was 2 1/2 years old. She received training in Oklahoma and in New York City, where she attended the 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.
2
She was part French and part Shawnee-Cherokee. She was one of five prominent Native American dancers who were raised in Oklahoma. The others were Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin, Maria Tallchief and her sister Marjorie Tallchief, now the last living member of the group.
3
She and her husband founded the School of Dance at the University of Oklahoma, as well as the Oklahoma City Civic Ballet, the forerunner of today's Oklahoma City Ballet.
$1.9 Million