It’s 35 years since the Australian Ballet last performed at London’s Royal Opera House, a long absence, and interesting that the piece they’ve chosen to bring isn’t something unique to the company, or a tribute to their British roots (the company was founded 60 years ago by Londoner Peggy van Praagh) but Jewels by George Balanchine, the choreographer who epitomises American ballet.
Such is the international business of dance. The Australian company’s director since 2021 is David Hallberg, a former star dancer of American Ballet Theatre and the first American principal at the Bolshoi. Conquering Balanchine is a marker of a company’s technical achievements. It inevitably invites comparisons to the New York City Ballet dancers, who have this style drilled into them from childhood, but great choreography stands up to differing interpretations.
A shameless corporate tie-in, 1967’s Jewels came out of a meeting between Balanchine and jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels, both looking to boost their brands. Scatter the stage design (by Peter Harvey) and costumes (Barbara Karinska) with glittering gems, and you’ve got a very pretty scene. But it’s also a journey through different dance eras, French Romanticism in Emeralds, set to Fauré; Tchaikovsky and the classicism of imperial Russia in Diamonds; and the disjointed dazzle of early 20th-century New York in Rubies, soundtracked by Stravinsky.
On the musical front, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia are on top form under Australian Ballet’s musical director (and regular Covent Garden conductor) Jonathan Lo. Their opening chords of Emeralds are played with sublime delicacy as the curtain rises to reveal the dancers in absinthe-coloured tulle. Emeralds is a ballet of soft hands and endless bourrées that could easily glide past you, but you can also focus in on the details. Valerie Tereshchenko dances as if suspended in a dream state, in motion like soundlessly scudding clouds, with graceful attention to the movement of her head and neck.
Brett Chynoweth is the absolute standout in Rubies, dancing with ease, musicality, flair and an occasional raised eyebrow – perfect for the arch mood of the piece. He manages to be soft and sharp, fast and slow within the same phrase, and later bounces joyfully across the score. Isobelle Dashwood takes on the dramatic angles of the central solo, but could do with more attack. You can’t be too polite in this piece, it has to be danced with precision, yes, but also with relish.
British dancer Joseph Caley leads the final section, Diamonds. Formerly with English National Ballet, he moved to Australia in 2022. Caley is a model of classical restraint, partnering Benedicte Bemet in a pas de deux that has strong Swan Lake Act II vibes in its melancholy beauty. Bemet shows some deft speed, spinning off the stage in chainé turns but Balanchine’s homage to Marius Petipa here falls a little flat – there’s nothing in this show that isn’t lovely to look at, but it needs something extra: more grandeur, more glinting brilliance perhaps, or something luscious within its frame of measured perfection.
• Jewels, by the Australian Ballet, is at the Royal Opera House, London, until 5 August. The company’s 60th Anniversary Celebration gala is at the ROH on 6 August
