Van Cleef &amp; Arpels&rsquo; enduring affinity with the world of the choreographic arts is epitomised by its jewellery and watches, and partnerships with dance companies and institutions the world over.

When Van Cleef &amp; Arpels made its return to the Watches &amp; Wonders fair earlier this year, it presented magnificent works that evoke the poetry of time, a magical expression of time and its indication and passage, realised through the Maison&rsquo;s watchmaking expertise and jewellery savoir-faire. While the Poetic Astronomy automaton and the Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier timepiece articulated the mystique surrounding time and the natural world, the Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchant&eacute;e watch intimated the connection between time and dance. Reimagined from a reference introduced in 2013 &mdash; which took inspiration from a quote by Anna Pavlova: &ldquo;I dreamed that I was a ballerina, and that I spent my life dancing as light as a butterfly&hellip;&rdquo; &mdash; the Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchant&eacute;e now exhibits a more dynamic posture in the figure of the dancer, and new colours and materials on her tutu created with champlev&eacute; and plique-&agrave;-jour enamel, as well as a self-winding double retrograde movement and time-on-demand module &mdash; an extraordinary ode to the ballerina, a prominent emblem of the Maison.

Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée watch in white gold with diamonds and sapphires

Van Cleef &amp; Arpels has had a long history depicting, collaborating with, and supporting the world of dance. In the 1920s in Paris, Louis Arpels, a ballet enthusiast, would often take his nephew Claude with him to the Op&eacute;ra Garnier. Some 20 years later, Louis Arpels directed the Maison&rsquo;s artisans to create bejewelled clips portraying lithe ballerinas in elegant costumes, inspired by famous dancers such as Russian doyenne Anna Pavlova; the diminutive figures wore faces of gold or rose-cut diamond and dresses set with gemstones, their slender silhouettes exuding lightness, elegance, vigour and spontaneity.

This relationship between Van Cleef &amp; Arpels and&nbsp;the world of dance was further strengthened in the&nbsp;1950s, when Claude Arpels met the choreographer&nbsp;George Balanchine, co-founder of the New York&nbsp;City Ballet. Both men were enamoured with&nbsp;gemstones and shared a love of dance, and an&nbsp;artistic partnership was ignited when Balanchine&nbsp;created the three-act abstract ballet&nbsp;Jewels, which&nbsp;debuted in 1967. Its three chapters were each&nbsp;inspired by emeralds, rubies and diamonds, and&nbsp;set to music from composers Gabriel Faur&eacute;, Igor&nbsp;Stravinsky, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
On the 40th anniversary of Jewels,&nbsp;Van Cleef &amp;&nbsp;Arpels collaborated with the London Royal Ballet&nbsp;on the Ballet Pr&eacute;cieux high jewellery collection&nbsp;of remarkable pieces based on four themes: ballet,&nbsp;emeralds, rubies and diamonds. The Maison&nbsp;expanded the collection in 2013 with jewels&nbsp;inspired by five famous Russian ballets including&nbsp;Swan Lake&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Nutcracker,&nbsp;and&nbsp;again in 2016&nbsp;with figurative and abstract creations in homage&nbsp;to classical ballets such as&nbsp;Les Sylphides&nbsp;and&nbsp;Le&nbsp;Pavillon d&rsquo;Armide.

Esprit de la Rose ballerina clip in white gold and rose gold, with diamonds, pink sapphires, and rubies

Héloïse ballerina clip in white gold and red gold with diamonds and Mystery Set emeralds

Swan Lake ballerina clip in white gold with diamonds, black spinels, and onyx

Sylphide ballerina clip in white gold and yellow gold, with pink sapphires, yellow sapphires, and diamonds

More than 50 years after the debut of Jewels,&nbsp;Van Cleef &amp; Arpels unveiled the Lady Arpels Ballerines Musicales watches, a three-piece series within the Poetic Complications collection that melds music, movement, and artistic expression. Each miniature tableau depicts a theatre stage draped with lavish curtains, with a diamond-set upper dial highlighting the retrograde time indication on a graduated 12-hour scale, and on-demand animation set to music: The curtains part to reveal hand-painted ballerinas who appear to flit across the dial to notes from a music box and a carillon underneath &mdash; tunes derived from the score of Jewels.

Lady Arpels Ballerine Musicale Rubis watch in white gold with ruby and diamonds

Lady Arpels Ballerine Musicale Émeraude watch in white gold with emerald and diamonds

Lady Arpels Ballerine Musicale Diamant watch in white gold with diamonds

Going beyond crafting dance-inspired jewellery&nbsp;and timepieces, Van Cleef &amp; Arpels throws its support behind advancing the choreographic arts. Ongoing since 2012, the Maison&rsquo;s partnership with French dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied and his L.A. Dance Project Company has brought forth a series of powerful, emotive works, and in 2020 the Maison created Dance Reflections by Van Cleef &amp; Arpels, to support dance companies and institutions and broaden the reach of contemporary works. The programme currently has commitments in France (such as with Festival d&rsquo;Automne &agrave; Paris, and Th&eacute;&acirc;tre de la Ville and Chaillot &mdash; Th&eacute;&acirc;tre National de la Danse), Italy (with Romaeuropa Festival and Acad&eacute;mie de France in Rome &mdash; Villa M&eacute;dicis) and the UK (with Sadler&rsquo;s Wells and the Royal Opera House), and it has plans to extend its range of partnerships this year to other regions, such as the US, Middle East and Asia-Pacific region.

Beauty in Motion: Van Cleef & Arpels and the World of Dance

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