The Australian Ballet, Jewels review ★★★★★
After a 35-year absence from London’s premier dance house, The Australian Ballet took to the stage at Covent Garden with Balanchine’s glamorous, glittering Jewels
Australian Ballet, Jewels - Emeralds. Photo: Rainee Lantry
The Australian Ballet is celebrating. Not only is it back at the Royal Opera House after a long 35 years, the company is also marking its 60th anniversary, and it has a new(ish) director, the American former star dancer David Hallberg, who gave his final performances on this very stage.
So, for a tour charged with significance Hallberg picked a glamorous, glittering and highly demanding work, George Balanchine’s 1967 Jewels. A full evening ballet in three parts, Jewels was inspired by the New York window displays of the jewellers Van Cleef and Arpels; and into it Balanchine distilled his key balletic influences.
Balanchine’s works have been part of The Australian Ballet’s repertoire for a while; but Jewels has only recently joined them, and it still needs a little time to bed in.
As a ballet it’s on a level all its own, with its three contrasting Acts each alluding to the specific qualities of one gem – emeralds, rubies and diamonds – and through them to the styles of respectively 19th-century French Romanticism, the brash New York jazz age and the grandeur of Russia’s imperial tradition.
Emeralds, set to a dreamy score by Fauré, is suffused by mystery and softness, as if set on an idyllic forest glade. The stage is bathed in a green glow that shimmers off the women’s long, flowing skirts, all costumes, recreating the original designs by Barbara Karinska, liberally dotted with sparkling stones.
Generally well steeped in the style of Emeralds, the ensemble of 10 women moved as one when creating lines that soon dissolved into other lines. Shami Spencer and Callum Linnane danced the lead pas de deux with assurance, if not great chemistry; while among the soloists Drew Hedditch caught the eye in the pas de trois.
In Rubies Peter Harvey’s set, an uneven cascade of outsize gems, changes from soft green to bright, fiery red under Perry Silvey’s skilful lighting. Set to Stravinsky’s spiky, syncopated Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra its choreography is jazzy, energetic, humourous and very sexy.
The Australian Ballet, Jewels, Ako Kondo and Brett Chynoweth in Rubies. Photo: Rainee Lantry
There’s a touch of Broadway brashness in the women’s high kicks and off-centre developés and in the ensemble’s larky jogging around the stage. The key roles go to a pair – on opening night Ako Kondo Brett Chynoweth, both very engaging – and a single tall woman – Isobelle Dashwood – meant as a commanding figure to whom four men flock irresistibly.
In Act III the curtain goes up on a sumptuous imperial ballroom, the dazzling sparkle of diamonds radiating from set and costumes, the women now in generous white tutus.
Danced to music by Tchaikovsky, the tone is regal, and regular ballet-goers will detect intentional quotes from the great Russian classics, such as Swan Lake.
The Australian Ballet, Jewels, Joseph Caley and Benedicte Bemet in Diamonds. Photo: Rainee Lantry
The long central pas de deux, danced by the impressive Benedicte Bemet with Britain’s own Joseph Caley, in his first performance on home soil since joining The Australian Ballet, is an elegiac, unrushed affair, rather like a slowly released breath, where an aura of mystery surrounds the woman as she appears to feel contradictory pulls, both towards her partner and away from him.
Diamonds ends with the entire cast parading downstage in perfect unison, a finale designed to elicit rapturous applause, which it duly did.
The Royal Ballet Sinfonia on good form under Jonathan Lo provided live music.
Australian Ballet dances a 60th anniversary gala on Sunday 6 August at 1:30pm. Returns only
So, for a tour charged with significance Hallberg picked a glamorous, glittering and highly demanding work, George Balanchine’s 1967 Jewels. A full evening ballet in three parts, Jewels was inspired by the New York window displays of the jewellers Van Cleef and Arpels; and into it Balanchine distilled his key balletic influences.
Balanchine’s works have been part of The Australian Ballet’s repertoire for a while; but Jewels has only recently joined them, and it still needs a little time to bed in.
As a ballet it’s on a level all its own, with its three contrasting Acts each alluding to the specific qualities of one gem – emeralds, rubies and diamonds – and through them to the styles of respectively 19th-century French Romanticism, the brash New York jazz age and the grandeur of Russia’s imperial tradition.
Emeralds, set to a dreamy score by Fauré, is suffused by mystery and softness, as if set on an idyllic forest glade. The stage is bathed in a green glow that shimmers off the women’s long, flowing skirts, all costumes, recreating the original designs by Barbara Karinska, liberally dotted with sparkling stones.
Generally well steeped in the style of Emeralds, the ensemble of 10 women moved as one when creating lines that soon dissolved into other lines. Shami Spencer and Callum Linnane danced the lead pas de deux with assurance, if not great chemistry; while among the soloists Drew Hedditch caught the eye in the pas de trois.
In Rubies Peter Harvey’s set, an uneven cascade of outsize gems, changes from soft green to bright, fiery red under Perry Silvey’s skilful lighting. Set to Stravinsky’s spiky, syncopated Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra its choreography is jazzy, energetic, humourous and very sexy.
The Australian Ballet, Jewels, Ako Kondo and Brett Chynoweth in Rubies. Photo: Rainee Lantry
There’s a touch of Broadway brashness in the women’s high kicks and off-centre developés and in the ensemble’s larky jogging around the stage. The key roles go to a pair – on opening night Ako Kondo Brett Chynoweth, both very engaging – and a single tall woman – Isobelle Dashwood – meant as a commanding figure to whom four men flock irresistibly.
In Act III the curtain goes up on a sumptuous imperial ballroom, the dazzling sparkle of diamonds radiating from set and costumes, the women now in generous white tutus.
Danced to music by Tchaikovsky, the tone is regal, and regular ballet-goers will detect intentional quotes from the great Russian classics, such as Swan Lake.
The Australian Ballet, Jewels, Joseph Caley and Benedicte Bemet in Diamonds. Photo: Rainee Lantry
The long central pas de deux, danced by the impressive Benedicte Bemet with Britain’s own Joseph Caley, in his first performance on home soil since joining The Australian Ballet, is an elegiac, unrushed affair, rather like a slowly released breath, where an aura of mystery surrounds the woman as she appears to feel contradictory pulls, both towards her partner and away from him.
Diamonds ends with the entire cast parading downstage in perfect unison, a finale designed to elicit rapturous applause, which it duly did.
The Royal Ballet Sinfonia on good form under Jonathan Lo provided live music.
Australian Ballet dances a 60th anniversary gala on Sunday 6 August at 1:30pm. Returns only
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| What | The Australian Ballet, Jewels review |
| Where | Royal Opera House, Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Covent Garden (underground) |
| When |
02 Aug 23 – 06 Aug 23, 19:30 Sat mat: 13:30 Sun Gala at 13:30 Jewels Dur.: 2 hours inc two intervals |
| Price | £4-£115 |
| Website | Click here to book |