What Am I Seeing? The middle section of the evening, Rubies, is like Times Square at midnight: bright lights, rushing crowds, a touch of jazz, and just a hint of danger. A soloist woman—often, if not always cast as a very tall dancer—and a petite couple lead a corps de ballet of twelve in a ballet that revels in turned-in legs, jutting hips, and syncopated accents.
What Am I Hearing? Igor Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, written in 1929. Though Balanchine and Stravinsky had a longstanding partnership, and Stravinsky wrote many ballets for Balanchine, this wasn’t one of them. And, ironically, though it’s come to be understood as the “American” section in the Jewels triptych, the piece was written well before Stravinsky moved to the United States.
What Should I Look For? Jazz! And bit of sass. Everything here should be bigger, faster, jazzier, sexier than Emeralds. It’s showing off a new kind of American dancer in contrast to the French Romanticism we just saw. The central pas de deux can catch you by surprise every time, with a kind of humor and playful sensuality. It should be expansive and then crisp, precarious, but self-assured.