Karin Bergs
Jewels goes back to Van Cleef & Arpels, a luxury jewelry brand that already had the ‘Ballerina Clip’ in its range in 1941 – a brooch depicting dancers.
In 1967, the company owner inspired the New York City Ballet to create a dance piece about jewels. The ballet piece consists of three parts, choreographed to music by composers Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky and Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky, reflecting the beauty and sparkle of the jewels.
Stage design
The stage design is simple but extremely effective! The first act dances to the Emerald, i.e. the green emerald to Gabriel Fauré. The dancers wear shiny emerald green tutus decorated with green stones and large green glass stones hang on the stage. The second act is about the Ruby accompanied by Igor Stravinsky. The tutus are red, have short skirts made of individual red stones and large red stones decorate the stage. The third act is all about the diamond and is accompanied by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Everything here is white.
The dancers are each richly decorated with crowns, tiaras, necklaces and there are also large green, red or white stones on their skirts, depending on which act it is.
The audience was mixed: cheering and euphoria could be felt from act to act, but the person sitting next to me said: ‘Was that a gymnastics lesson?’
Unfortunately, the trailer (approx. 00:30 min) doesn’t capture the great stage impression:
