INPERSON
A
Dress
to
Remember
Sewickley’s Marianna
Tcherkassky featured
in Smithsonian exhibit
that displays costumes
from prominent
ballerinas.
By Nicole Tafe
A
little piece of Sewickley Heights
resident Marianna Tcherkassky’s
history now hangs proudly in the
Smithsonian National Museum of American
History’s “American Ballet” exhibit. The
display showcases costumes worn by prima
ballerinas including Tcherkassky, Misty
Copeland and Violette Verdy—all three of
whom brought unique stylistic and cultural
influences to the development of a distinctly
American ballet style.
Tcherkassky, 64, began studying ballet
with her mother, Lillian Oka Tcherkassky—a
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professional ballet dancer of Japanese
descent—at a very early age. At age 12,
she attended Mary Day’s Academy of the
Washington School of Ballet on a scholarship,
which hosted both academic and dance
classes. At age 14, she went to New York City
on scholarship to George Balanchine’s School
of American Ballet and attended Professional
Children’s School for academics until her
graduation in 1970. She joined the Corps
de Ballet of the world-renowned American
Ballet Theatre (ABT) in the spring of 1970,
was promoted to the rank of soloist in 1972