"When we started the pas de deux, I felt secure. Standing up stage, I took an extra breath, and then made the flying leap into Frank’s arms. Suddenly there I was being held by him upside down, my head practically touching the floor. An audible sigh rose in the audience. We heard it. It was as if they could barely believe what they had seen. One second before I had been at one end of the stage, standing upright, yet now here I was at the other side, suspended in Frank’s arms. No one could see how it had been done. I must have flown. This was one of the effects. George had worked so hard on in rehearsal, and the way he had been able to create that moment was astonishing even to me. I’d become this magical creature, the Firebird, yet I knew I had become the Firebird because George had made me the Firebird. his genius had never been as clear to me as in that instant. When we finish the pas de deux, the audience applauded so loudly that Franke and I were stunned. We hadn’t expected it."
--Maria Tallchief: America's Prima Ballerina
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