New York

Oct 19 - Dec 14, 2023

Launched in 2020, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is a program dedicated to dance, whose main goal is supporting creative artists and institutions linked to the world of choreography. In addition, the initiative stages a festival together with international partners each year: the first events took place in London in March 2022, and in Hong Kong in May 2023. For this US edition, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is proud to be collaborating with prestigious New York institutions to showcase the wealth of choreographic creation.

The festival’s program is inspired by the three values of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels: creation, transmission, and education. Throughout several weeks, some 12 performances will offer a panorama of international choreographic creation, interspersed with recent works and pieces from the repertoire that have gone down in the history of contemporary dance.

With that in mind, we are delighted to inaugurate this edition with Dance by Lucinda Childs at the New York City Center, performed by the Lyon Opera Ballet. The festival’s focus on the work of this choreographer continues with the Ballet national de Marseille, which will present two of the artist’s other pieces at the NYU Skirball: Concerto and Tempo Vicino. The end of November will also be an opportunity to discover Lucinda Childs at The Joyce Theater, in a program of six choreographers devoted to Philip Glass. Together, they will present five creations that pay tribute to the work of the composer, and his major contribution to the art of choreography.

The commitment of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels to transmission also extends to the Trisha Brown Dance Company, for its huge repertoire and new works, notably via a commission to the choreographer Noé Soulier. At Park Avenue Armory, École des Sables, a research laboratory and artist residency program in Senegal, presents The Rite of Spring. This masterpiece by Pina Bausch (1975) is performed by a group of 36 dancers, most of whom were trained at l’Ecole des Sables in Africa.

The historical reference is also established with Bombyx Mori by Ola Maciejewska, a piece directly inspired by the Serpentine Dance by Loïe Fuller, a pioneer of modern dance from the late 19th century. The richness and diversity of contemporary creation is a powerful presence at New York Live Arts, with L’Étang by Gisèle Vienne.

Following on from Crowd at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the choreographer and director now invites audiences to discover a striking work based on a text by the Swiss writer Robert Walser. Also at New York Live Arts, Mailles, by Dorothée Munyaneza brings five black female artists who are African or of African descent on stage, to relate their personal history and journey.

We will also discover the Ballet national de Marseille at the NYU Skirball with Mood: a piece by Lasseindra Ninja, a leading French exponent of Voguing – an urban dance form born in the 1970s and inspired by the poses of models at fashion shows.

Also at the NYU Skirball, Boris Charmatz – recently appointed head of the Pina Bausch company – will present SOMNOLE: an astonishing solo piece in which breath becomes both sound and movement. At the BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Rachid Ouramdane will bring together storytelling, the circus arts and contemporary dance in Corps extrêmes. Back to NYU Skirball, we will also be able to discover the new creation by Dimitri Chamblas and the musician Kim Gordon, a perfect illustration of the traditional relationship between music and dance.

I would like to thank our partners and the Villa Albertine for this new collaboration, which provides a unique opportunity to celebrate the richness of choreographic creation.

Serge Laurent

Van Cleef & Arpels’ Director of Dance and Culture Programs

DISCOVER THE PROGRAM