What to Watch for: Jewels
Jewels, a trio of works by ballet great George Balanchine, is a perfect beginner ballet. Each piece on the program highlights a different school of dance, showing the breadth and depth of Balanchine’s choreography and the art form itself. Whether you’re preparing for your first time seeing Jewels, or your 50th, here’s what to watch for onstage.
PNB Company dancers in George Balanchine’s Diamonds, choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Jewels consists of three shorter ballets: Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. Created in 1967 after an inspiring visit to Van Cleef and Arpels, Jewels puts its dancers on brilliant display. Emeralds evokes French elegance, Rubies brings the glamor and jazz of America, and Diamonds recalls the grandeur of Balanchine’s native St. Petersburg.
Elizabeth Murphy in George Balanchine’s Emeralds, choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Emeralds
- George Balanchine considered Emeralds “an evocation of France—the France of elegance, comfort, dress, and perfume.”
- Look for the sparkling, Romantic-length tutus, which extend below the dancers’ knees. Ballet’s Romantic era was in the mid-1800s, producing iconic French ballets like Giselle. It included many important innovations, such as the development of pointework, the production of tulle, and the invention of gas lighting. Notice the airy, ephemeral nature of the dancers’ movements throughout Emeralds, a nod to this Romantic era and style of dancing.
- The choreography, with its emphasis on expressive and sculptural upper body movements, also evokes the French school of ballet. For example, in the “bracelet solo” (which happens about seven minutes into the performance), one of the lead pointe-shoe dancers performs a series of intricate arm and wrist gestures. See how the dancer’s arm appears to move her, rather than that she moves her arm.
Angelica Generosa and James Yoichi Moore in George Balanchine’s Rubies, choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Rubies
- Rubies is inspired by the glam, wit, and jazzy chic of New York in the 1960s.
- The costumes reflect these American inspirations. Look closely, and you’ll see that the dancers’ crowns reference the Statue of Liberty’s. Also note the flapper-style skirts, which emphasize the dancers’ quick, cool movement.
- See what steps you notice that aren’t typically associated with ballet: turned-in legs, flexed feet, syncopated rhythms, and rocking hips. These movements, inspired by Jazz dance, are hallmarks of George Balanchine’s neoclassical style.
- The finale features some of the ballet’s most memorable dancing, especially the moment where the corps chase the principal flat dancer. Do you notice how the principal dancer goads them on, as if he’s saying, “Can you catch me?”
PNB Company dancers in George Balanchine’s Diamonds, choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Diamonds
- Diamonds recalls Balanchine’s youth: the grandeur of St. Petersburg, the Mariinsky Theater, and the Imperial Ballet, where Balanchine trained.
- The ballet is set to four movements of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3. Together, Tchaikovksy and Marius Petipa (who choreographed for over 60 years for the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg) created some of the most famous ballets: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and The Sleeping Beauty. Visual echoes to Petipa’s ballets like Swan Lake abound in Diamonds.
- Notice how this ballet has a grander sense of scale than the first two on the program, reflecting the Russian style of ballet. The “powder-puff” style tutus were invented by Barbara Karinska for Diamonds. The powder-puff tutu consists of a short skirt without a wired hoop for a softer, fuller appearance.
