Another Balanchine Original
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Onsconced in the American Folk Art Museum – but only until January 23rd – is a dazzling piece of dance history. The current exhibit “Masterpieces of American Jewelry,” presented by the National Jewelry Institute, contains a brooch commissioned by George Balanchine. The pin is a lithe ballerina posed in arabesque and wearing a costume of sapphires (my favorite gemstones – in case anyone’s asking), diamonds, and platinum.
Balanchine, according to curator Ralph Esmerian, asked his friend Claude Arpels, of Van Cleef & Arpels, to make the pin as a gift for his second wife, Vera Zorina. The pin was created in 1946, many years before Balanchine’s plotless ballet “Jewels” would be created for New York City Ballet in 1967. But the common thread between the gift and the ballet is Balanchine’s appreciation for objects of great beauty.
Van Cleef & Arpels already had created a series of ballerina brooches in the 1940s. These were pins made of rubies, diamonds, and emeralds and set in platinum that featured plump figures in willowy poses. But Balanchine’s version looks as if he had some design input.
And if you compare the sapphire pin to the earlier ones, the figure is considerably closer to that of a Balanchine dancer: The long-limbs are set at dynamic angles, the neck is stretched, and the individual fingers are articulated. The pin seems to capture that moment just before a dancer like City Ballet’s Alexandra Ansanelli glances flirtatiously up to the balcony and hits a divine arabesque.
Furthermore, it was Arpel’s artistry – according to the company’s program notes – that inspired Balanchine’s creation of the three parts of his “Jewels” ballet: Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. The material quotes the master choreographer as saying: “Of course, I have always liked jewels; after all, I am an Oriental, from Georgia in the Caucasus. I like the color of gems, the beauty of stones, and it was wonderful to see how our costume shop, under Karinska’s direction, came so close to the quality of real stones (which were of course too heavy for the dancers to wear).”
So why isn’t there a “sapphires” portion in the ballet? That would certainly bring the circle of inspiration back around nicely. It’s been said that Balanchine did plan on it, but ditched the idea out of concerns that the color would not register on stage properly.
Though the Balanchine-commissioned pin is the only real dance connection in this sumptuous exhibit, the National Jewelry Institute is a laudable venture in its own right. The 2-year-old organization was founded with the aim of preserving fine jewelry and promoting the future of the trade. This exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum is the group’s first major effort, but it hopes to create an active, ongoing apprentice program.
“There is such a lack of young hands learning how to design fine jewelry,” said Mr. Esmerian. “We’re not in a culture where you say to a 22-year-old: ‘You’re going to take five years and learn these techniques.’ To do it in the classical way takes a lot of discipline.”
Funny, the same thing is true of ballet.
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If there’s anyone who knows just how much discipline is required in ballet, it’s the teachers. This year, former American Ballet Theatre principal Martine van Hamel is joining those ranks at the Juilliard School’s Dance Division, as well as the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at ABT.
Ms. van Hamel, who is in her 50s, had a long career and has come to teaching rather late. Though she’s self-deprecating on the subject – “I’m not a ‘teacher,'” she said, making finger quotes in the air- she’s full of tough opinions about what ballet needs. And it’s highly likely that those opinions will filter down.
“In ballet, the technique has improved, but where’s the soul?” she asks. On her list of what’s needed is more musicality and better port de bras (the movement of the arms). “I think people catch up and learn port de bras.”
Her teaching this fall will reach to very different groups of dancers. “Most of the dancers I see aren’t trying to be professional ballet dancers,” she said of her Juilliard students. “They’re attitude is open, and they get as much as they can from the class. It’s refreshing.” Her class at the JKO School, on the other hand, is for dancers who are angling for ballet careers, especially within ABT. “I could almost teach the same class, and they’d draw different things from it,” she said.
Ms. van Hamel brings to the classroom the perspective of someone whose career has taken a meandering road. After starting ballet at the age of 4, she studied with several teachers around the world. When she landed at the National Ballet of Canada, she entered the school, then the company, at the soloist level. After becoming a principal there, she went to ABT, where she had to start over in the corps de ballet.
“It was hard. I was really depressed for about two years,” she recalls.
After working hard and catching a few breaks, she swept up the ladder, made principal status there, and spent a full 20 years at that level. Among her greatest joys was dancing “Swan Lake.” “It’s what I used as a measure of where I was,” she said, “It comes up about every two years. You grow into it.”
At the same time, she reveled in ABT’s modern pieces, a taste that took her to Jiri Kylian’s Nederlands Dans Theater III after retiring from ballet at 45. “It was like having a coda or a dessert to your career,” she said. In one piece created during her tenure there, she was asked to sing. “I never sang at all,” she said with a laugh.
The experience intrigued her, and she decided to take up a new habit. By making herself a student, she said, she’s made herself a better teacher: “Having to learn something new keeps you in touch with students.”
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There are two must-dos this week on the dance scene. First, the Limon Dance Company kicks off a splendid season with a two-week run at the Joyce Theater tonight. The works across two programs will include a world premiere by Susanne Linke (“Extreme Beauty”) and a company premiere by Lar Lubovitch (“Concerto Six Twenty-Two”), as well as classic Limon works: “Chaconne,” “The Unsung,” and “Psalm.”
Thursday night is a prime chance to get your copy of “Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance” signed by author Deborah Jowitt, dance critic of the Village Voice. From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., Ms. Jowitt will sign books at Dance Theater Workshop.