Jewels at the National Ballet of Canada: A Review
A lifelong dream fulfilled.
Image provided by Unsplash.
Watching Jewels live has been a dream of mine ever since I knew of the ballet. When it was released full-length on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, I held back because I didn’t want to spoil any future experiences.
It took a couple years, but finally The National Ballet of Canada announced it as part of their 2023/24 season, and I was not disappointed.
Every time the curtain went up, the audience audibly gasped. The lighting, the beginning formations, the minimalist stage — I felt like a kid watching a grand ballet for the very first time.
Jewels (Ballet)
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Performed by: The National Ballet of Canada
Date Seen: June 16, 2024.
I don’t know why Jewels isn’t performed more often in its entirety. It’s a Balanchine gem (pun intended) and fan favourite for several reasons:
It’s sparkly.
It’s pretty.
It’s simple.
Just like the jewels it was based on.
Who doesn’t love a good clear-cut diamond with no frills added?
In all honesty, ballet can get pretty complicated. We’re talking neoclassical (Balanchine’s signature), contemporary, post-modern, etc. Then there’s plot to understand and adaptations of more niche works like Dante’s The Divine Comedy (i.e. Wayne McGregor’s The Dante Project) and Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy (i.e. Wayne McGregor’s MADDADDAM).
The beauty of Jewels lies in its simple revocation of anything superfluous, despite being an abstract ballet. It brings attention back to the basics of ballet while highlighting the dominant styles of three major ballet companies around the world: Paris Opera Ballet (Act I: Emeralds), New York City Ballet (Act II: Rubies), and the Imperial Russian Ballet (Act III: Diamonds), now the Mariinsky Ballet.
It’s also autobiographical. These three companies influenced Balanchine significantly throughout his career, from his early start at the Imperial Ballet with their strict classical training, to the Romantic whims of the Paris Opera Ballet in France, and, finally, his founding of New York City Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein in the US. The three acts reflect the unique vibrancies of the cities the companies are based in (Jewels | Balanchine).
I think Balanchine is more spontaneous than history records, and there’s a lot of good humour to be found in his inspiration from seeing the window displays at Van Cleef & Arpels in New York City.
A lot of critics talk about the urbanity and fashion and music of Jewels, which are all great touchstones, but I’d like to point out the barer attributes that make it so alluring.
First of all, there’s no plot. It really is a show of technique, discipline, and grace. For beginner ballet-goers, I’d say Jewels might even be a better introduction than Balanchine’s Serenade, another pared-down, classic work. With Jewels, you don’t have to worry about keeping up with storylines and characters. You don’t have to think, I should’ve read the book before coming! You don’t have to struggle to feel smart.
Secondly, it’s just plain pretty. Sparkling tutus, glittering tiaras… There’s a reason animals flock to bright, shiny objects. I will admit I was a bit underwhelmed by close-up photos of the costumes; the bodices look thick and heavy, and there are far less gems and jewels on it than one would think for a ballet of this name. Under proper stage lighting, though, I can see their effect. The accents of sparkles do more for the eye than a full body of gems, which would read more “glitzy” than sophisticated.
…too light, and bright, and sparkling.
- Jane Austen of Pride and Prejudice
I find this quote fitting to describe Jewels, but unlike Austen’s early review of her pivotal work, Jewels was not too anything. It struck just the right chords with its choreography and staging.
There’s also a certain fun to “choosing.” I’m sure plenty of us have played role games with our friends when we were younger, ascribing ourselves to this Sailor Moon character or that personality type. The same preferential logic applies to watching Jewels, with the innocent conundrum of deciding which act you liked best — Emeralds, Rubies, or Diamonds — which costume was your favourite, what school of ballet you liked most. There’s a huge market, too, for birthstones and their symbolism, which adds another layer to the pull of this ballet. (I’m going out on a whim to say most of us probably want to be diamonds because they’re one of the rarest gemstones in the world, but I was pleasantly surprised to realize I couldn’t choose between the three. Each act was amazingly virtuosic and musical.)
If anything disappointed me, it was the colour of the corps de ballet’s tutus in Diamonds. They were a yellowy cream colour, while only the principals got costumes in brilliant white, what I imagined would be the case for all the dancers in Diamonds. The corps de ballet’s tutus were also longer and less structured, evoking a student style. The principal female’s tutu was a traditional pancake. If the designer wanted to highlight the principals — and, in conjunction, the Imperial Ballet — they did a good job. Otherwise, the cream seemed a bit dull, and it’s a little out of place from the ensembles in Emeralds and Rubies that shared the same colour throughout.
Note: All white is, however, a headache for lighting designers. White reflects everything. It’s the reason lighting designers will tell choreographers not to dress their dancers in white unless they’re (preferably) a soloist because it’s much too distracting in a group. As one can see, there are many factors that go into both costume and lighting design.
The set was interesting because there was literally nothing on stage except some cream-coloured curtains by the wings. The cyc was on, which in some cases can provide way too much light for a ballet but in this case amplified the costumes magnificently with the designer’s choice of complementary and monochrome tones.
Jewels’s simplicity inspires people. I heard one girl say after the first act that if she were ever reincarnated, she’d want to be a ballet dancer. It proves that ballet, when stripped down to the essentials, is still more than enough to capture the hearts and minds of audiences, experienced or not.
Balanchine knew this, and much of his work focused on minimalist but intricate choreography, paired essentially with the music.
See the music, hear the dance.
- George Balanchine
For more information on Jewels:
Image provided by Unsplash.