When George Balanchine created his three-act ballet Jewels in 1967, he popped into the New York branch of the French jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels for the photoshoot. That moment cemented the relationship between the jewellery house and dance. Now, the company is scattering gems across London – not in the shape of its sapphire and diamond ballerina brooches (unfortunately) but in the form of a festival, featuring some contemporary classics and some pioneering new work.
The opening night of Dance Reflections, curated by Serge Laurent, in collaboration with Sadler’s Wells, the Royal Opera House and Tate Modern, revealed its intent. Its centrepiece was a revival of Lucinda Childs’ Dance, made in 1979 and widely agreed to be one of the most significant and beautiful examples of “postmodern dance”, the re-examination of the principles of movement that began in New York in the 1960s.
