last night, allison and i went to the new york city ballet performance of jewels. jewels is a ballet in three parts, choreographed by balanchine in the late-ish 60s. emeralds, rubies, diamonds. each set to different music. fauré, stravinsky, tschaikovsky. each having a completely different style and each absolutely stunning. i love, love, love this ballet. it has a wonderfully romantic history about it, too - balanchine was inspired by van cleef and arpels - and the (impossible) love between him and suzanne farrell (he created diamonds for her!) each jewel is represented so differently, the mood certainly changes with each. diamonds is by far my favorite. classic and grand. allison's favorite was rubies--sharp, lush and elegant. i saw one of my favorite dancers perform rubies during the opening night performance of the season, aurelie dupont. it was a dream.
every time the curtain is drawn up in the beginning of a performance, i feel an overwhelming rush of loveliness. there is so much involved in a ballet. there is so much to experience. so many directions to look and so many sounds to hear. the dancer's shoes moving across the stage during quieter moments, seeing the orchestra turning the pages of their music, the harp and the harpist, the opulent scenery, the divinely glittering costumes, the reactions and appreciation of the audience. be still my heart!
and then we all left the theater and scrambled out into a slushy and windy blizzard! it's easy to forget the outside world while attending a ballet. le sigh.
