{"id":11381,"date":"2025-04-11T17:34:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T17:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/11381\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T17:34:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T17:34:56","slug":"van-cleef-arpels-put-london-under-a-spell-of-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/11381\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Cleef & Arpels Put London Under a Spell of Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLONDON<\/strong> \u2014 This spring London was plastered with dance with tube stations and billboards advertising Van Cleef & Arpels dance festival \u201cDance Reflections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe citywide event ran from March 12 to April 8 and once again reunited London\u2019s dance communities including the Royal Ballet and Opera<\/a>, the Southbank Centre, Sadler\u2019s Wells in Angel and Stratford and the Tate Modern museum.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver 28 days, there were a total of 15 shows, 16 workshops, 150 dancers involved and one conference \u2014 yet there wasn\u2019t a single piece of jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels<\/a> in sight.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDance, 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\u2019ve got from it in return,\u201d said Serge Laurent, Van Cleef & Arpels<\/a>\u2019 dance and culture program director, in an interview.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Production<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGeorge Balanchine\u2019s \u201cSerenade\u201d at the Royal Ballet<\/a> and Opera.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a92025 Foteini Christofilopoulou<\/p>\n

\n\tThe dance festival has toured Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong and Kyoto.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe London iteration of \u201cDance Reflections\u201d marks the festival\u2019s second welcome in the city. The first premiered in 2022 after it was postponed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat we want to do with \u2018Dance Reflections\u2019 is to share our vision of dance on a global approach. I don\u2019t create a specific program for each city,\u201d Laurent said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s curated an eclectic mix of performances featuring traditional and contemporary dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Production<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGeorge Balanchine\u2019s \u201cSymphony in C\u201d at the Royal Ballet<\/a> and Opera.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a92025 Foteini Christofilopoulou<\/p>\n

\n\t(La) Horde worked with the Ballet National de Marseille on \u201cAge of Content,\u201d drew on the \u201cinternet\u2019s 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,\u201d according to Van Cleef & Arpels.<\/p>\n

\n\tBallet de Lyon presented \u201cMerce Cunningham Forever<\/a>,\u201d some of the choreographer\u2019s most renowned work, from \u201cBeach Birds\u201d to \u201cBiped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChoreographer \u200bRobyn Orlin\u2019s dance piece took a more political stand with \u201cWe Wear Our Wheels With Pride\u201d about the rickshaw drivers of South Africa\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo close the festival, the Royal Ballet and Opera presented \u201cBalanchine: Three Signature Works.\u201d The dance compiles three of the choreographer George Balanchine\u2019s pieces, from \u201cSerenade,\u201d his first ballet created in the U.S., followed by \u201cProdigal Son\u201d and \u201cSymphony in C.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Production<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGeorge Balanchine\u2019s \u201cProdigal Son\u201d at the Royal Ballet and Opera.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a92025 Foteini Christofilopoulou<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the \u201860s, the choreographer created \u201cJewels,\u201d a three piece dance collection that\u2019s generally considered among his best work that were inspired by the rubies, diamonds and emeralds in the Van Cleef & Arpels windows on New York\u2019s Fifth Avenue that he would often walk past.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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 \u201cDance Reflections\u201d on \u201ccreation, transmission and education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn bringing together institutions such as the Royal Ballet and Opera, the Southbank Centre, Sadler\u2019s Wells and the Tate Modern together was a big deal for him as it opened dance to a larger crowd.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpreading 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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Production<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLauren Cuthbertson and William Bracewell in George Balanchine\u2019s \u201cSerenade\u201d at the Royal Ballet and Opera.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a92025 Foteini Christofilopoulou<\/p>\n

\n\tRichemont<\/a>\u2019s 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 \u201cemphasize our commitment to the field of dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI found the corporate social responsibility very generous and it\u2019s 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],\u201d Laurent said.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn three years, the Van Cleef & Arpels network of dance has worked with 16 different countries and more than 60 different dance institutions.<\/p>\n

\n\tCatherine R\u00e9nier<\/a>, Van Cleef & Arpels\u2019 CEO, said that just \u201clike the way our craftsmen exercise their expert skills in our workshops, dance is an art of movement that requires great precision in gestures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Production<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGeorge Balanchine\u2019s \u201cSymphony in C\u201d at the Royal Ballet and Opera.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a92025 Foteini Christofilopoulou<\/p>\n

\n\tShe added that she has \u201cmany 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLaurent 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt \u2018Dance Reflections,\u2019 we\u2019re not hiring the artists to put on an event to promote our collections. Our idea is to support the art form itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Production<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNatalia Osipova in George Balanchine\u2019s \u201cProdigal Son\u201d at the Royal Ballet and Opera.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a92025 Foteini Christofilopoulou<\/p>\n

\n\tEducation remains a top priority and passion project for Laurent in his role as curator at the 129-year-old brand.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe jeweler already supports a residency program for dancers in New York, Hong Kong and Japan that Laurent wants to develop furthermore.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter London, he will be taking \u201cDance Reflections\u201d to Seoul.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Laurent, the dance festival is deeply emotional and its name \u201cDance Reflections\u201d may baffle those whose first language is English.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor the French, it\u2019s a very clear title because dance reflects people. It\u2019s not only an intellectual reflection, but it\u2019s a mirror,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 This spring London was plastered with dance with tube stations and billboards advertising Van Cleef &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[7803,748,393,4884,257,7804,16,15,7805],"class_list":{"0":"post-11381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-ballet","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-richemont","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-van-cleef-arpels"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114320541279926944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}