12th February – 9th March.
Dancing emeralds, rubies and diamonds . . .
Balanchine (1904 – 1983) got the idea for his jewels ballet when he walked past the windows of Van Cleef & Arpels on Fifth Avenue one morning. The jewellers had set up “one window of diamonds, one of emeralds and one of rubies”, whereby “in the centre of each group, a beautiful diadem was displayed, just like at the court of the tsar”. “I was”, said Balanchine, “hypnotised on the spot”.
International ballet traditions
In 1967, the three types of gems served as the basis for three glittering ballets portraying different worlds and ballet traditions. Balanchine, who was familiar with each of them, as he grew up in St Petersburg, created his first works in France for the legendary Ballets Russes, and then gained world fame in the United States, as the leader of the company he founded there: New York City Ballet.
Elegance, dynamism and splendour
Jewels opens with the refined and elegant Emeralds; ‘an evocation of the France of elegance, comfort, dress and perfume’. Rubies, flashy and razor-sharp, shows the influence that dynamic American life had on Balanchine. And the noble Diamonds, to music by Tchaikovsky, refers to the splendour of the court of the Russian tsars and its affiliated Mariinsky Theatre, where Balanchine began his career.
Photo by Hugo Thomassen
