Carina Ari, 1930
Carina surrounded by her
pupils in Paris, in 1932 (above)
and 1933 (below)
Currents
in the world of ballet
In the early 1930s, it was till customary to let older, sturdier ballerinas perform the male parts in travesty. This practise was disliked by Carina Ari, who always loved men.
She advertised for male dancers, especially a partner for herself. Balanchine applied but was rejected. He was never particularly proficient as a dancer, although he was later to become one of the century’s greatest choreographers. Instead, she chose Boris Kniaseff as her partner. He was no great dancer either, but great male dancers were rare. Kniaseff eventually came to be an excellent teacher and was head of the Royal Opera ballet in Stockholm for a period in the 1940s.
This brings up another side of Carina Ari’s work that appears to have been all but forgotten. She had a great talent for teaching. As mentioned, she was a private pupil of Fokine’s, after having been schooled in the classical French style at the Royal Opera ballet school in Stockholm. Her second in command at Opéra Comique was a slightly older dancer, Mauricette Cébron, who adhered to Carina’s methods and conducted the daily practice sessions when Carina was too busy. In 1934, she left Opéra Comique to become a teacher at the ballet school of the Paris Opera for a quarter of a century. Nearly all subsequent famous French stars started by studying for her, and according to a system that emanated from Carina Ari, that she in her turn had adopted from Russia, which in turn had been influenced by France and Italy. That is the way the currents may flow in the world of ballet. Carina was a link in the chain, a vital link.
Inghelbrecht and Carina Ari stayed with Opéra Comique for less than two years. As mentioned, Carina went on to stage a new production of The Moonbeam at the Paris Opera, followed by the Royal Opera in Stockholm in 1935. The following year, she staged a first performance in Stockholm of the ballet Eva (properly titled The Metamorphoses of Eve), a medley of Eves through the ages, offering some rewarding roles for the Opera soloists.
The première dancer Teddy Rhodin of the Opera ballet wrote in his memoirs, ”I had never seen anyone as beautiful as her."
A year later, just before New Year’s Eve 1937/38, Carina performed Ode à la Rose at the Stockholm Opera, substantially extended into three pieces that together formed a full “Carina Ari Soirée”.
A quarter of a century went by before she returned with a new choreography to the town where she was born – a reconstruction, to the best of her memory, of Börlin’s The Foolish Virgins. By then, she had entirely forgotten her own choreographies. This is not an unusual phenomenon among choreographers.
Carina Ari som "Sulamit" i
"Le Cantique des Cantiques", 1938
Le Cantique des Cantiques
Yet another significant contribution lay before her in the 1930s in Paris. Serge Lifar wanted to create a ballet based on the Song of Solomon from the Bible, Le Cantique de Cantiques. He took the leading part himself, and needed a partner.
The piece was one of Lifar’s modernist
experiments. That kind of experiment was a thing of the past – modernism
had culminated in Paris in the 1920s, with Ballets Russes and Ballets Suédois
and the plethora of “isms” surrounding them. The looming war that was foreboded
by many created a cold climate in 1938. The ranks of artists and models
at Café Dôme started thinning out. Only the ballet seemed impervious
– until after it broke loose. The music for Cantique des Cantiques
was commissioned from Honneger and consisted mainly of percussion. the role
of Sulamit required a skilled dancer with classical schooling but the ability
to disregard tradition and move “freely”, sensually and at her own discretion.
Lifar could find no one with these qualities, apart from Carina. He created
an approximate choreography, and his intention was that he alone would improvise,
in order to achieve a special tension, a moment of creation right in front
of the audience. Carina was not informed of this, but in their main pas
de deux he started to move differently from how they had rehearsed together.
What was she to do? “I couldn’t just stand there with the audience gaping
at me!” With death-defying courage, Carina choreographed herself – literally
as she stood – to accompany her partner, and it eventually developed into
a battle of who could be the most expressive.
No one could equal Carina’s rhythmic and musical
talent. The audience cheered and the press was exultant about the danseuse
– and slightly less so about the danseur. However, Lifar benefited too.
Cantique des Cantique went down in history as one of his most remarkable
works. But after eight performances, Lifar had had enough of choreographic
duelling and closed down the performance
Only once more, in March 1939, did Carina Ari perform
her “Scènes dansées” at the Opéra Comique.
It was to be her swan song.