Glittering finale

Jewels
Royal Opera House

Created in 1967 for a stellar cast of dance artists, Jewels is one of the most written about of Balanchine’s ballets. Intrigued by its uncommon structure, namely three choreographically diverse, plotless sections set to different music, dance writers have long debated the work’s possible meanings. Today it is generally agreed that the ‘first abstract three-act ballet’, as it was originally referred to in the press, draws upon the gems’ pretext to show a reading of three different ballet epochs: the Romantic one (Emeralds), the jazzy, all-American modern one (Rubies) and the one that Balanchine loved most for biographical reasons, the Imperial Russian Ballet (Diamonds), portrayed here in all the glittering splendour of its aristocratic classicism. As someone who has long studied 19th-century ballet practices and their contextual factors, I cannot help thinking that there is more to it, though. What most illustrious colleagues seem to overlook is that, throughout the 19th century, precious stones, like flowers, fans, handkerchiefs and other objects, were used as metaphorical signs to express different concepts and feelings. This ‘language’ provided dance makers of the time with first-rate source material, as demonstrated by the abundance of ballets and divertissements revolving round precious stones — as in the case of the well-known pas from the third act of Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty.

It is thus possible that Balanchine decided to create a work in which the celebration of three dance eras went hand in hand with typical 19th-century meanings, the memory of which had been triggered by a visit to the New York showrooms of Van Cleef and Arpels — the sponsor of the current Royal Ballet’s production.

If read from this angle, Jewels comes across as a not so abstract tribute to three facets, or stages of love, as each of the three chosen precious stones referred to in the ballet was said to possess magical properties that favoured the path of a successful relationship.