Van Cleef & Arpels Put London Under a Spell of Dance

LONDON — This spring London was plastered with dance with tube stations and billboards advertising Van Cleef & Arpels dance festival “Dance Reflections.”

The citywide event ran from March 12 to April 8 and once again reunited London’s dance communities including the Royal Ballet and Opera, the Southbank Centre, Sadler’s Wells in Angel and Stratford and the Tate Modern museum.

Over 28 days, there were a total of 15 shows, 16 workshops, 150 dancers involved and one conference — yet there wasn’t a single piece of jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels in sight.

“Dance, for a very long time, has been a source of inspiration for the maison. The idea was to give back to the art form as an appreciation of what they’ve got from it in return,” said Serge Laurent, Van Cleef & Arpels’ dance and culture program director, in an interview.

George Balanchine’s “Serenade” at the Royal Ballet and Opera.

The dance festival has toured Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong and Kyoto.

The London iteration of “Dance Reflections” marks the festival’s second welcome in the city. The first premiered in 2022 after it was postponed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What we want to do with ‘Dance Reflections’ is to share our vision of dance on a global approach. I don’t create a specific program for each city,” Laurent said.

He’s curated an eclectic mix of performances featuring traditional and contemporary dance.

George Balanchine’s “Symphony in C” at the Royal Ballet and Opera.

(La) Horde worked with the Ballet National de Marseille on “Age of Content,” drew on the “internet’s aesthetic facets of distraction, accumulation and collage, and, moving from the strange familiarity of a GTA character to a TikTok dance mash-up, the group uses choreographic art as a tool to give critical distance,” according to Van Cleef & Arpels.

Ballet de Lyon presented “Merce Cunningham Forever,” some of the choreographer’s most renowned work, from “Beach Birds” to “Biped.”

Choreographer Robyn Orlin’s dance piece took a more political stand with “We Wear Our Wheels With Pride” about the rickshaw drivers of South Africa’s past.

To close the festival, the Royal Ballet and Opera presented “Balanchine: Three Signature Works.” The dance compiles three of the choreographer George Balanchine’s pieces, from “Serenade,” his first ballet created in the U.S., followed by “Prodigal Son” and “Symphony in C.”

George Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son” at the Royal Ballet and Opera.

In the ‘60s, the choreographer created “Jewels,” a three piece dance collection that’s generally considered among his best work that were inspired by the rubies, diamonds and emeralds in the Van Cleef & Arpels windows on New York’s Fifth Avenue that he would often walk past.

The dance festival is as much a nod to the impact dance has had on the French luxury jeweler as it is an education in the art form. From the beginning, Laurent has based “Dance Reflections” on “creation, transmission and education.”

In bringing together institutions such as the Royal Ballet and Opera, the Southbank Centre, Sadler’s Wells and the Tate Modern together was a big deal for him as it opened dance to a larger crowd.

Spreading the gospel of dance is what attracted Laurent to his current position at Van Cleef & Arpels. He was previously a curator of live performances at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Lauren Cuthbertson and William Bracewell in George Balanchine’s “Serenade” at the Royal Ballet and Opera.

Richemont’s chief executive officer, Nicolas Bos reached out to Laurent when he was still CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels and told him that the maison wanted to “emphasize our commitment to the field of dance.”

“I found the corporate social responsibility very generous and it’s a very American approach of giving back to the community. I found it really touching, especially as a French man, who is used to public funding [when it comes to the arts],” Laurent said.

In three years, the Van Cleef & Arpels network of dance has worked with 16 different countries and more than 60 different dance institutions.

Catherine Rénier, Van Cleef & Arpels’ CEO, said that just “like the way our craftsmen exercise their expert skills in our workshops, dance is an art of movement that requires great precision in gestures.”

George Balanchine’s “Symphony in C” at the Royal Ballet and Opera.

She added that she has “many affinities with the choreographic universe and I am particularly touched by the history of the maison with dance. Nevertheless, my knowledge of contemporary dance [could still improve], [but] like the values of transmission and education that we wish to promote through this support program, I am ultimately part of the public that we hope to reach and educate.”

Laurent revealed that public funding for the arts in France has been shrinking as of recently and urges other corporate businesses to think about their initiatives.

“At ‘Dance Reflections,’ we’re not hiring the artists to put on an event to promote our collections. Our idea is to support the art form itself,” he said.

In February, American dance historian Jennifer Homans was named as the inaugural Van Cleef & Arpels chair at New York University, where she will be teaching the history of dance.

Natalia Osipova in George Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son” at the Royal Ballet and Opera.

Education remains a top priority and passion project for Laurent in his role as curator at the 129-year-old brand.

The jeweler already supports a residency program for dancers in New York, Hong Kong and Japan that Laurent wants to develop furthermore.

After London, he will be taking “Dance Reflections” to Seoul.

For Laurent, the dance festival is deeply emotional and its name “Dance Reflections” may baffle those whose first language is English.

“For the French, it’s a very clear title because dance reflects people. It’s not only an intellectual reflection, but it’s a mirror,” he said.

Van Cleef & Arpels Put London Under a Spell of Dance

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