JEWELS

George Balanchine’s masterpiece, Jewels, is one of the highlights of Season 2023. An Australian premiere made possible by the generosity of the contributors to The David Hallberg Fund, the three-part ballet celebrates Balanchine’s vision of three jewels: Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds

Visually and thematically structured around the motifs of each precious stone, each of the three acts is distinct in style and mood as it explores through movement, the colour and qualities of the three jewels.

Central to the spectacle – and working in perfect concert with Balanchine’s choreography and Peter Harvey’s set designs – are the costumes for each jewel, originally created by Balanchine’s legendary collaborator Barbara Karinska. The dedicated team of The Australian Ballet’s Costume Workshop have been lovingly recreating Karinska’s opulent designs with meticulous care and craftsmanship to showcase the classical precision of the company’s talented artists.

Speaking of the creative endeavour, Musette Molyneaux shares some of the measures her team took to ensure costumes were recreated with absolute accuracy and sensitivity. “Because the work is so well-known, because the Karinska designs are of such historical significance and because of the many deeply respected parameters involved when staging a Balanchine work, Jewels has involved a significant amount of research.

“To stay as true to the original Karinska production as possible, we enlisted the support of a design consultant in the United States who spent time at New York City Ballet pulling costumes and photographing them for us, so we could accurately recreate the exact details and colours in our workshops in Melbourne and New York.

“We also found a superb archive of images at a New York library from a photographer who had captured multiple New York City Ballet seasons, including many Jewels productions. It was fascinating to see the additional details in the photos that had been lost over time due to costume repairs and revisions. Because we found those photographs, we’ve been able to recreate versions that are even closer to Karinska’s original designs.”

The recreation of the sumptuous costumes has been a real team effort, spanning international time zones and involving many hands – some of which belonged to volunteers from The Australian Ballet’s community of supporters. With more than 18,000 jewels to sew onto the costumes, the company benefited from hours of sewing expertise donated by the Country Women’s Association and The Embroiderers Guild, who spent six months sewing the thousands of jewels onto fabric which was then placed onto the costumes.

“The support of these individuals has been invaluable,” explains Musette. “It’s been a community enterprise and the costumes will shine all the brighter because of their commitment.”