New York will get a new dance festival this fall: Van Cleef & Arpels, the French luxury jeweler, announced on Tuesday that it would sponsor a 16-day event partly aimed at bringing more international choreographers and ensembles to the city.
The festival, Dance Reflections, will feature groups like LA(HORDE), a French collective that will perform a work set to electronic music with the Ballet National de Marseille. The festival will open with an American classic: “Dance,” a 1979 collaboration between the postmodern choreographer Lucinda Childs and the composer Philip Glass, performed by the Lyon Opera Ballet on Oct. 19 at New York City Center.
“We want to combine together very different approaches and to promote the diversity and richness of dance,” Serge Laurent, director of dance and culture programs for Van Cleef & Arpels, said in an interview. “It’s important for the development of artists and audience to be exposed to different approaches, and to have another view of the international scene.”
The lineup also includes work by the experimental choreographer Gisèle Vienne and U.S. premieres by Rachid Ouramdane, who directs the Chaillot-Théâtre National de la Danse in Paris; the contemporary choreographer Dimitri Chamblas, in a collaboration with Kim Gordon; the Polish-born choreographer Ola Maciejewska; and the British-Rwandan artist Dorothée Munyaneza.
Van Cleef & Arpels has in recent years played a role in promoting dance. In 2020, the company started the Dance Reflections series, hosting festivals in London last year and in Hong Kong this year.
The company cited its longtime connection to New York as an inspiration for bringing the festival to the city. The renowned choreographer George Balanchine was friendly with Claude Arpels and was inspired by him to create a gem-themed ballet, “Jewels,” which had its premiere at New York City Ballet in 1967.
Nicolas Bos, the company’s president and chief executive, said in a statement that the festival provided an opportunity to “revive its own heritage in the United States.”
“Dance Reflections” runs through Nov. 3, and it will take place at a variety of theaters, including City Center, N.Y.U. Skirball, New York Live Arts, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Pioneer Works and the French Institute Alliance Française.