Why dance and jewellery were made for each other from Claude Arpels and Coco Chanels fa

Publish date: 2024-06-03

In the Middle Eastern dance form of raqs sharqi – more commonly known as belly dancing – dancers don jingling coin belts, bracelets and finger cymbals, as well as earrings, anklets, headpieces and necklaces (most notably, the Hand of Fatima, a good luck talisman).

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Throughout much of traditional Chinese dance’s 4,000-year history, dancers have dressed in jewellery made from precious materials such as gold, jade and pearls. Ornate bejewelled headwear that harks back to the fengguan crowns once worn by empresses and emperors’ concubines has long featured onstage in Chinese musical theatre and dance.

Jewellery is also integral to Indian classical dance disciplines such as Kathak, which dates back to around 400BC. In this ancient dance form, jewellery serves several purposes beyond merely making dancers more dazzling in appearance. For instance, the maang tikka headpiece worn by female dancers represents the third eye and a connection to the divine, while bell-adorned anklets known as ghungroos not only visually accentuate foot movements, but also create a rhythmic sound that augments the musical accompaniment.

The Renaissance period in Europe saw the emergence of ballet, a discipline that has embraced the use of jewellery as an onstage adornment from its very earliest days. When the Ballet of the Nuns was performed at the French court of pioneering arts patron Catherine de’ Medici in the late 16th century, performers dripped in gold chains, pearls and pendants, while a 1653 performance of the Ballet de la Nuit staged for Louis XIV featured dancers adorned in elaborate jewellery including necklaces, bracelets and tiaras.

In Tchaikovsky’s famous 1890 ballet The Sleeping Beauty, the lead Princess Aurora wore a suitably regal costume featuring a crown, necklace and earrings embellished with diamonds and pearls. Two decades later, Igor Stravinsky’s masterpiece The Firebird similarly saw the prima ballerina of the Ballets Russes draped in a bejewelled headdress and necklace.

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In 1922, the renowned French jeweller and glass designer René Lalique created an illuminated table centrepiece, L’Oiseau de Feu, inspired by Stravinsky’s The Firebird suite. When lit up, this magnificent sculpted crystal bird took on a flame-like aspect, blazing red and orange thanks to a coloured filter concealed in its base, the light dancing across the surface of the crystal.

Conversely, gemstones and jewellery themselves served as the inspiration for Russian-American choreographer George Balanchine’s 1967 production, Jewels, which featured three acts named for gems: “Emeralds”, “Rubies” and “Diamonds”. Balanchine is said to have conceived the abstract ballet at the suggestion of Claude Arpels, of Van Cleef & Arpels.

The storied Parisian jeweller boasts a long-standing association with the world of ballet and dance. The relationship can be traced back to Louis Arpels, who would frequently take his nephew and heir, Claude Arpels, to watch performances at the Opera Garnier in Paris during the 1920s. A lifelong love of dance was sparked, and in the 1940s, at Claude’s direction, Van Cleef & Arpels began making ornate diamond brooches modelled on the poses of renowned ballerinas such as Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo (known as La Camargo) and Anna Pavlova.

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To this day, Van Cleef & Arpels’ association with dance remains robust. Not only does the maison regularly produce exquisite jewellery and timepieces inspired by and visually celebrating ballet – so much so that the dancer has become a visual signature of the brand – Van Cleef & Arpels also throws its significant resources into promoting and supporting many of the leading practitioners of dance today.

The past decade has seen partnerships with Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project, collaborations with institutions such as the Royal Opera House in London, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and The Australian Ballet, and sponsorship of The Fedora – Van Cleef & Arpels Prize for Ballet, which annually rewards excellence and inventiveness in choreography.

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This comes fresh on the heels of the Hong Kong world premiere of Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon, a biographical dance production charting the life of the groundbreaking French designer, created by Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa for HK Ballet.

Chanel’s signature stacked pearl necklaces adorned dancers Yang Ruiqi and Ye Feifei as they channelled Coco onstage, in a fitting tribute to the fashion icon – Coco herself was indeed a great admirer of ballet. She often attended performances, and shared close friendships with the Ballets Russes’ principal dancer Serge Lifar and the company’s celebrated ballerina Tamara Karsavina.

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Today, designers and jewellers continue to find inspiration in dance, with one of the latest being Valérie Messika. Her recent Magnetic Attraction high jewellery collection seeks to bring a sense of movement and fluidity to rigid precious metals and stones.

Of particular note are the Dancing on Air bracelet and anklet, featuring stunning pear-shaped diamonds, which derive design cues from similar pieces worn by Indian dancers. Between tradition and modernity, jewellery and movement, the dance goes on.