NYCB Vol. 3 No. 17 - Firebird

As Tallchief remembered from her stage vantage: “A firestorm of applause erupted in the City Center, and the audience was on its feet clapping, stomping, and shouting. We just stood there dumbfounded. People were screaming, ‘Bravo!’ shouting themselves hoarse. It was pandemonium.” The production provided just the kind of blockbuster City Ballet needed to be accepted as the metropolitan cultural institution [Morton] Baum wanted.

—Stravinsky & Balanchine: A Journey of Invention by Charles M. Joseph

(left) Gelsey Kirkland, 1970. Photo by Martha Swope

(center) Maria Tallchief, 1949. Photo by George Platt Lynes

(right) Merrill Ashley, 1985. Photo by Martha Swope