Carina Ari (14 April 1897 – 24 December 1970) was the artistic name of Maria Karina Viktoria Jansson, a Swedish-born dancer. After a noted career of dance and choreography which spanned from 1913 to 1939, mostly in Paris, Ari married and moved to Argentina. Taking up sculpting, she created busts of several prominent figures. Beginning in 1951, she created endowments to care for dancers, establishing funds to care for ill or aging dancers, to promote new talent, and to establish a library in Sweden to encourage study on dance. The Carina Ari Library in Stockholm holds one of the most extensive collections of archival materials on dance in Europe.

Early life

Maria Karina Viktoria Jansson was born on 14 April 1897 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden. Raised in poverty, with questions of her heritage, due to her swarthy complexion, Jansson dreamed of becoming a dancer from a young age. In 1911, she enrolled in the dance school offered by the

Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera ( sv, Kungliga Operan) is an opera and ballet company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Location and environment The building is located in the center of Sweden's capital Stockholm in the borough of Norrmalm, on the eastern side ...

, graduating in 1913.

Career

Upon completion of her studies, Jansson entered the corps de ballet of the

Royal Swedish Ballet The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian dominance in this fi ...

(RSB). 1913 was the year in which Michel Fokine joined the RSB as its artistic director. His approach differed to what had been done in the past, promoting dancers to roles based on ability, rather than by their rank in the company. Fokine selected Jansson to participate in the corps de ballet for the production of '' Les Sylphides'' and the following year chose her for a small role in '' Scheherazade''. Activities of the ballet company were suspended during World War I, but in 1918 and again in 1919, Jansonn participated with Fokine in two guest appearances over the summer at the theater of Tivoli Gardens. During the first of these appearances, Jansonn changed her artistic name to Carina Ari. In 1919, Ari quit the Royal Ballet, borrowed money, and moved to Charlottenlund Denmark to study with Fokine, who had taken a villa there. After graduating from Fokine's training and receiving his endorsement for her choreographic abilities, she returned to Stockholm. She was hired by Mauritz Stiller to choreograph the ballet ''Schaname'' for his film '' Erotikon'' (1920). The ballet scene was extensive and required the entire Royal Ballet for the performance. Soon after filming ended, she left Stockholm and moved to Paris. She worked as a principal dancer with the

Rolf de Maré Rolf de Maré (9 May 1888 – 28 April 1964), sometimes called Rolf de Mare, was a Swedish art collector and leader of the Ballets Suédois in Paris in 1920–25. In 1931 he founded the world's first research center and museum for dance in Paris. ...

's Ballets suédois from 1920 to 1923, noted for her flowing arm movements. The first production by the company, ''Ibéra'' was composed by Isaac Albéniz, based on Spanish themes suited both Ari's dark appearance and her dancing style. She also appeared in ''

Jeux ''Jeux'' (''Games'') is a ballet written by Claude Debussy. Described as a "poème dansé" (literally a "danced poem"), it was written for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky. Debussy initially objected to the ...

'' and ''La Nuit de Saint-Jean'' to acclaim, and then in 1922,

Jean Börlin Jean Börlin was a Swedish dancer and choreographer, who was born in Härnösand on March 13, 1893 and who died in New York on December 6, 1930. He worked with Michel Fokine, who was his teacher in Stockholm. Biography Jean Börlin was held in high ...

, the other soloist and choreographer, wrote ''Anitra’s Dance'' especially for her. She performed the piece receiving good reviews and calls for encore, but the notice she was getting caused conflict with Börlin, who forbade her to dance it again. Ari left the company after the 1923 season. Ari was then hired as a soloist at the

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne ...

, where Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht served as music director. The two married in 1925, the same year she launched ''Scénes Dansées''. The ballet, which she choreographed and danced, featured a full symphony orchestra, detailed stage designs and eight solo dances, with no intermissions. Between dances, Ari would run to the wings and quickly change costumes, before her next dance. The performance was one of the first in which a classically trained ballerina appeared in a theatrical production on such a large scale and approached modern dance more than her

classical roots Classical may refer to: European antiquity * Classical antiquity, a period of history from roughly the 7th or 8th century B.C.E. to the 5th century C.E. centered on the Mediterranean Sea * Classical architecture, architecture derived from Greek a ...

. Her reviews were excellent, and she toured throughout Europe with the production until 1939. In 1928 Ari was hired by the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

to choreograph and she created ''Rayon de Lune'', dancing as one of the leads. The music for the ballet was based on ''Thème et Variations'' was composed by

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...

. The following year, she formed her own company and was hired as a choreographer for the Fête des Narcisses held in Montreux, Switzerland. Then for the 1929–1930 season she served as the ballet mistress for the

Algerian National Theater Mahieddine Bachtarzi The Théâtre National Algérien Mahieddine Bachtarzi, formerly known as the Algiers Opera House, is a historic building in Algiers, Algeria. It was built from 1850 to 1853. It was designed by architects Charles Frédéric Chassériau and Justin ...

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

. Returning to Paris, she became the ballet director at the Opéra-Comique until 1933. Between 1935 and 1937, she appeared in Stockholm at the Royal Opera. In 1938, Ari was hired as the soloist for the role of the Sulamite in ''Le Cantique des Cantiques'' by Serge Lifar. Though he had many stars at the Paris Opera to choose from, he selected Ari because of her fluidity and more modern style. Her last performance was on 30 March 1939, when she performed her ''Scénes Dansées'' at the Opéra-Comique. Suffering from rheumatism, Ari traveled to Aix-les-Bains in the south of France where she met Jan Henrik Molzer, one of the principals of the Dutch beverage firm Bols. She and Inghelbrecht split up, Ari married Molzer and in 1940, moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ari began a second career as a sculptor. Her most noted pieces are busts of Dag Hammarskjöld, Serge Lifar and Rolf de Maré. Her bust of Hammarskjöld is on display at the tower which bears his name in New York City. Upon her husband’s death in 1951, Ari began using her fortune to dancers who were ill or aging.

Death and legacy

Ari died on 24 December 1970 in Buenos Aires. In 1961, she created an annual scholarship to be awarded to a promising young dancer, as well as an annual medal to recognize those who promote the development of dance in Sweden. In 1969, Ari endowed a second foundation bearing her name to create the Carina Ari Library. The library is annexed to the Dance Museum of Sweden and contains the most comprehensive archive of dance literature in

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other g ...

References

Citations

Bibliography