In 2012, 45 years after the premiere of George Balanchine’s Jewels, Van Cleef & Arpels commissioned Benjamin Millepied to create a new jewel-inspired trilogy. The three ballets will be performed together for the first time at Brisbane Festival. Rhys Ryan talks to the French choreographer about his adventurous career, making Gems and the power of dance in our disembodied world.

LA Dance Project performing Benjamin Millepied’s Reflections, one of three works in Gems. Photo © Rose Eichenbaum

“It is open to doubt whether even George Balanchine has ever created a work in which the inspiration was so sustained, the invention so imaginative or the concept so magnificent.” 

So begins The New York Times’ review of the 1967 premiere of Jewels – a high-water mark in 20th-century dance. Touted as the first full-length ballet without a plot,...