The Sylvan Glade romance of ‘Emeralds’, the electric energy of ‘Rubies’, the glittering imperial court of ‘Diamonds’. These are the three movements of George Balanchine’s 1967 ‘Jewels’, often described as the first complete, plotless ballet. On Tuesday, New York City Ballet opens its 75th anniversary season with “Jewels,” a tribute to all the dancers who have been part of the company’s history.
That’s fitting, because “Jewels” was Balanchine’s tribute to his dancers of that era: to the enchanting elegance of Violette Verdy and Mimi Paul in “Emeralds”; the carefree charms and street smarts of Patricia McBride and Edward Villella in “Rubies”; and the grand glamor of Suzanne Farrell and Jacques d’Amboise in ‘Emeralds’.
The idea arose during a dinner at the home of violinist Nathan Milstein, where Balanchine and Claude Arpels, of the Parisian jewelry firm Van Cleef & Arpels, were both guests. Balanchine, eager to create work on a larger scale for the company’s new home at Lincoln Center, liked the idea of dancers as exquisite gems and perhaps hoped for sponsorship. (It didn’t happen.)
‘Jewels’ begins with an ode to French romanticism in ‘Emeralds’ on Fauré. Then follows ‘Rubies’, an exuberant, witty illustration of the angular modernism that the Russian-born Balanchine developed in New York, set to Stravinsky. Finally, ‘Diamonds’, set to Tchaikovsky, evokes the grand imperial style of late 19th-century Russian classicism.
It is a mini-history of ballet and a portrait of Balanchine’s dancing life, which began at the Imperial Theater School in St. Petersburg; had chapters in France with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and the Paris Opera Ballet; and found its full expression in New York, where he founded the School of American Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein in 1934 and the City Ballet in 1948.
“It was a risk,” says Barbara Horgan, the choreographer’s longtime assistant. “We haven’t really made full-lengths. But I think he wanted to make a blockbuster and attract an audience.’
The audience came – and the title of the work came a little later. In a DailyExpertNews review after the April 1967 premiere, Clive Barnes called the three movements “The Jewels,” adding that the ballet “should be called something.” (He also offered an alternative: “The Bits of Colored Glass.”) By the time the winter season started in November 1967, they were officially “Jewels.”
In interviews, five of the original cast members talked about their memories of making the ballet with Balanchine. Here are edited excerpts from the conversations.
Emeralds: ‘A walking meditation’
Mimi Paul
During my first rehearsal, Balanchine asked the pianist Gordon Boelzner to play two movements of the Fauré music. I knew the melody of the Sicilian variant [from “Pelléas et Mélisande] because the classical radio station I was listening to played it as their signature, so I said, “I like that one.” Balanchine said, “This is going to be very special for you.”
We walked to the back corner and he started. Essentially you were trying to emulate what he showed you. He didn’t talk much, but I remember him telling me to think about walking a tightrope, consciously placing each foot in front of the other and never having both feet on the ground at the same time. It was like a walking meditation. He was very accommodating. If something felt uncomfortable, he changed it. Sometimes he let me invent things, which I liked to do.
I think he saw an aspect of who I was at that moment. I was quiet and introverted, someone who worked alone a lot. It’s not like he pulled anything out of me; more that he saw something in me. I felt extremely free.
Suki Schorer
I felt like it was really me on stage in the pas de trois of ‘Emeralds’. Balanchine knew his dancers so well. He knew what our parents did, how we were raised. He got you talking, without asking direct questions, but he was curious. With Violette Verdy he made optimal use of her French port de bras and musicality, and gave her a lot of freedom.
I remember a theater rehearsal, just before the premiere, where Violette said, “Mr. B., you didn’t choreograph the finale.’ He said, “Oh, I forgot.” He quickly put it together and we had to try to remember it! Later he added a section to ‘Emeralds’, and the ending changed completely.
Robijnen: Off balance, with a sense of humor
Patricia McBride
Balanchine demonstrated so beautifully, with all those hippie, twisted movements, and showed us the unbalanced collaboration. He worked very calmly and quietly, you could hardly hear him talk, and he was very gentle. I was always a little nervous keeping up with Mr. B., but we were pretty relaxed together.
The things that aren’t balanced are tricky, but if you have the musicality, that would help you. Mr. B. was very specific with the counts; he was always very precise with Stravinsky’s music. It’s mind-boggling to understand the different counts when the force does one thing and the directors do something else. It’s incredible how his mind could work that way.
He never said “shine here” or anything like that, but in the pas de deux he said, “Make your legs angry,” so I stomped my legs in front of that opening, stomp, stomp, stomp, into the music. He let me be myself. I thought it was a very glamorous role.
Edward Villella
When we started working on Rubies, I thought, oh my goodness, this has a sense of humor! Balanchine said to me, “You are the jockey and Patty is the showgirl,” and the humor in the ballet continued to evolve. In the third part, there’s a part where four guys chase the main guy around the stage, and it was so much like me. I was always messing around and laughing. I was a tough kid from Queens, an oddity who had jumped ship at maritime college, and I was so happy to dance.
Balanchine listened to scores for years. You heard him in the theater taking scores apart, note by note, on the piano. When he came into the practice room, it was never tense because he was completely prepared and knew us. Everything in our pas de deux was surprise, surprise, surprise. It was very difficult as a partner, there were so many unseen, extraordinary ideas. But I said to myself: He trusts me with this.
Diamonds: greatness without tragedy
Suzanne Farrell
Balanchine asked me if I had a preference about which gem I wanted to be. I suggested the Stravinsky section and he said, “I think I want you to be the diamond.” The first day he didn’t know how to start the pas de deux, so we started in the center. Later he added the entrance. The pas de deux has a diamond-like prism effect, lots of separating and coming together again. At some point we actually make a diamond shape. It’s so ingenious. There is no competition between man and woman in the pas de deux; it’s just two people coming together and doing something that neither could do alone, and making it even more sublime. It is gloriously resolved, there is no tragedy.
It was the only tutu ballet Balanchine ever made for me, and I loved the sense of grandeur he created through the music. I especially love the polonaise; nothing beats Mr. B., Tchaikovsky and a polonaise!
I think what connects the three ballets in “Jewels” is the bourrée [a series of tiny gliding steps done on pointe]. They are different in each piece – languid in ‘Emeralds’, prancing in ‘Rubies’ and more like stylized walks in ‘Diamonds’. No one ever applauds a bourrée, but here they hold the ballet together.
