Beautiful and Shining "Jewels" Onstage at The Pacific Northwest Ballet

The red curtain sparkled with tiny bedazzled gems, shining like tiny stars, as it opened to reveal long green tutus which sparkled in front of the audience who stared in awe even before the dancers began to move. A little while before entering the theater, I overheard an elderly woman talking about how she thought that the world needed more pure beauty in it; something uncomplicated and idealistically happy. In a world so obsessed with finding meaning in every little thing that it is killing us, maybe what we need is just to see something beautiful for the sake of it being beautiful. After seeing the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of Jewels, I understood what she said. A lot of people need to connect to seeing joy in art, and this is part of what makes Jewels such an excellent ballet for both new and returning audiences to the PNB.

George Balanchine’s Jewels is a rare gem of a plotless ballet. One should not discount it on account of its lack of a plot, however. Its focus is on the diversity of beauty and how, even in a specific art form like ballet, there can be many ways to express emotion and beauty. The entire ballet is split into three acts that work as smaller ballets: Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. Each ballet has a main color scheme associated with it incorporated in the costumes and background: dazzling green for Emeralds, a roaring red for the unapologetic joy of Rubies, and a classy white with light undertones of several other colors, like pink for Diamonds.

Each of the sections focuses on a distinctive style of ballet inspired by a great era of dance. Emeralds, the first movement of the ballet, has an ambience of French classical ballet. Its costumes feature green romantic length tutus, and its movements emphasize the arms, especially as seen in its famous “bracelet solo” dance.

Rubies is an immediate shift in tone, however. Inspired by the 1920s jazz age of America, it features many movements that one would not expect to see in ballet, such as flexed feet and other movements more typical of jazz. Jérôme Kaplan, the scenic and costume designer for the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Jewels, lightly redesigned some of the show’s costumes. In Kaplan’s adaptation, the Rubies costumes include a flapper-esque tutu with red strands that look like a cheerleader’s pom-poms. The tone of Rubies is much more playful and unapologetically silly than the others. At one point, it feels as if in the pas de deux dance partners are competing with one another to outdo each other. It has a “boy-and-girl-next-door” feel to it that is dramatically different from any other point in the ballet.

The final act, Diamonds, is inspired by Balanchine’s childhood in St. Petersburg. It has an air of chivalry and calm romanticism, yet is quite distinct from Emeralds in the way it presents itself. Kaplan’s redesign of the costume is mainly white; however, there are hints of other colors if you look closer. This gives the costume a multicolored effect that one might see when they look at a diamond. At first, you may only see the plain white clear effect; however, as you look closer, there are thousands of tiny rainbows reflecting inside of it. The cavalier has a particularly impressive role in this portion of the ballet, with an at-length solo that received rigorous applause like no other part. The solo featured incredible leaps with immense height, all with a playful smile on the performer’s face. As the cavalier exited the stage, he did so with a flirtatious little back kick of the foot that finished the number excellently.

The lighting and design for each of these sections was fabulous, created by Kaplan and Randall G. Chiarelli, head of lighting. Each part had one major element in the background that grabbed the attention of the audience. For Emeralds, there were sparkling stars on the back wall. For Rubies, bright red lights shone from the borders of the stage, creating a border. The audience gasped as they saw Diamond’s brilliant crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Each of them clarified the mood of the sections: Emerald’s old romanticism straight out of a fairy tale, Rubies’ jazzy American chaos, and the classy Russian ballroom style of Diamonds.

In the end, I think that the old woman I overheard in the lobby was right. Jewels is the perfect ode to pure aesthetic beauty, and it is fantastic. The almost utopian happiness and romance allow the audience to just breathe for a moment and appreciate how beautiful life can be. The difficulty of ballet and the level of skill and work needed to do it well truly show how much effort can be put into making something beautiful, simply for the sake of it being beautiful. Jewels connected with me because it let me see a romanticized joy in life, in all the different forms that emotion can take. A lot of people can forget to remember that kind of unapologetic joy, and I think it’s important for them to see it in art. It allows people to remember that part of life and feel more comfort in a pure expression of emotion even if they can’t face it head on. Even without an overlying plot, Jewels completely enraptures us in its emotion and different sides of the beauty of dance. It is an excellent opener for the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s season this year, and I will absolutely be going to see more of their shows in the future.

Lead photo: Pacific Northwest Ballet company dancers in Emeralds from Jewels, choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. PNB launches its 2025-26 season with Jewels, onstage at Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall, September 26 – October 5, 2025. For tickets and info, contact the PNB Box Office, 206.441.2424 or PNB.org. Photo © Angela Sterling.

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