George Balanchine’s Jewels was premiered by the Australian Ballet as part of the company’s 60^th anniversary celebrations last year and very welcome it was too. It’s unlike anything else in the repertoire and it’s hard to think of a work that, moment for moment, is more glamorous. Sydney, Melbourne and London saw it last year; now it’s Adelaide’s turn.  

Jewels both is and isn’t a story ballet. The three constituent parts have no narrative to drive them. They are wonders of mood, spirit, colour and the art of classical dance.

But you can’t admire Jewels without some understanding of Balanchine’s inspiration for the work. He’d been introduced to Claude Arpels, of the fancy jewellery firm Van Cleef & Arpels, and the idea for a ballet and a bit of cross-promotion came up. That’s the pragmatic bit. But Balanchine was a genius too and in Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds, Balanchine drew on his own history, his deep understanding of music and his ability to showcase the special gifts of dancers he had moulded at New York City Ballet. (For a while sapphires were in the mix but Balanchine thought the colour wouldn’t work on stage.)

So there is a story – a really good one – but not a narrative. Jewels is a vision of three great dance and musical traditions, each markedly different from the other but sitting together so satisfyingly. The evening starts with the French romance, elegance and mystery of Emeralds to the music of Fauré and ends with a homage to the grand Russian classical tradition in Diamonds (Tchaikovsky), taking a detour in the middle to unstoppable American energy and knowingness in Rubies (Stravinsky). In Adelaide TAB music director Jonathan Lo was at the helm of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Luxury.

For Adelaide’s opening night the leading couples in Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds were those who opened the show in Sydney. If anything, Sharni Spencer (Emeralds lead principal) was even more lustrous than she was in Sydney and the leading couple in Diamonds, Benedicte Bemet and Joseph Caley more unutterably aristocratic.  Ako Kondo and Brett Chynoweth were about the same in Rubies, which was fabulous. Last year I described them as best in show but in Adelaide on Friday night they were first among equals. 

Second principal couple in Emeralds, Dimity Azoury and Maxim Zenin, and the trio of Jade Wood, Yuumi Yamada and Lucien Xu were all on song and made Emeralds the pick of the evening. Corps de ballet member Belle Urwin was somewhat restrained in the tough role of the second principal woman in Rubies, a task usually given to an extremely tall, imposing dancer who can toss off the many difficulties of the part with a mix of amusement and hauteur. 

Soloist Isobelle Dashwood, who had originated that part for TAB when Jewels premiered in Sydney last year was otherwise engaged as a member of the company undertaking a regional tour. I saw the show in Newcastle, very close to the end of the season.

Soloists, coryphées and corps de ballet company members were backed by senior students from the Australian Ballet School for a quadruple bill of Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante (a TAB premiere), the Act II pas de deux from Swan Lake (from last year’s revival of the Anne Woolliams production), Stephanie Lake’s Circle Electric: Prologue (now called this because Lake expanded this 2023 piece into the full-length, mainstage Circle Electric that premiered this year) and a truncated Act III of The Sleeping Beauty.

At the performance I saw Allegro Brillante was fast and sleek in the hands of Dashwood and new (this year) TAB soloist Davi Ramos, of whom one would like to see more. The eight supporting ABS dancers were buoyant and confident. They looked very happy to be there and flew through with attractive ease.

Coryphée Larissa Kiyoto-Ward and soloist Mason Lovegrove had their work cut out for them in the Swan Lake pas deux, given the complete lack of context, unpleasing recorded music (credited to Moscow International Symphony Orchestra) and ho-hum lighting. Despite these disadvantages Kiyoto-Ward created a touching Odette and Lovegrove a tender Siegfried. 

(The dancers changed roles during the tour and the only image I have of Kiyoto-Ward and Lovegrove is in Allegro Brillante.) 

I saw Circle Electric: Prologue last year and admired it greatly. Its new cast of six sizzled, with corps member Annabelle Watt a particular standout for her plasticity and ferocity. It was therefore all the more exciting to see Watt return to the stage after interval as a sparkling Princess Florine. The serene Aurora was corps member Amy Ronnfeldt, also fresh from Circle Electric and presumably running on adrenalin. Ronnfeldt was well supported by fellow corps member Yichuan Wang as Prince Desirée (great fish dives).

It would have been good to see a few more of the Act III storybook characters included to give the ABS students more than a bunch of steps to get their teeth into. It wasn’t a long night. Lucy Kaplan was the lucky one at the performance I attended, delightful as a light, fresh Cinderella.

Jewels runs in Adelaide until July 18. The Australian Ballet on Tour ends in Wagga Wagga on July 17 and 18.