Carina Ari,
in the late 1960s
(Photo: Dagens Bild)
The
Donatrix
With the exception of a few personal friends in Stockholm from before the war, remarkably few had heard of Carina in the city where she was born. Twenty years had passed since her dance performance, and the Second World War was also a mighty watershed between old and new. Dancers are easily forgotten, possibly due to their short careers – they retire while still young.
An extensive marketing campaign was needed to revive Carina Ari’s name in the media consciousness. But once this had been done, she became more famous than ever before. She experienced great pleasure (with a characteristic wry scepticism) in becoming a superstar. In fact, it was easy to achieve – her great charm made her unforgettable to anyone who met her, not least to journalists.
Carina used to say that the money she had received in her youth to pay for studies with Fokine gave her the break she needed. She wanted to give latter-day colleagues the same chance. Not that she under-estimated Swedish dance teachers. On the contrary, the Swedish Association of Dance Teachers was included in her extensive charity. However, dance is the most international art form, and it is an effective stimulant to new artists to have the opportunity to travel abroad and see how people dance in other cities, and also to try studying at a dance school in another country, as a change or a complement.
She started a scholarship foundation. Friends of dance founded an award in her name, to be given to people who have been “a credit to the Swedish art of dancing”. Since it was instituted in 1961, the Award has been frugally given to some 60 people.
Sweden already had a dance museum that was unique in the world, created in memory of Rolf de Maré. Carina asked me if there was anything she could do on a par with this museum. An institution that would benefit dance and make her name live on.
What could be more vital than a large library with literature about dance
from the entire world? She decided to start the Carina Ari Library, which
today is the largest in its field in Northern Europe, and with sufficient
capital for acquisitions and maintenance.
Carina had no remaining blood relatives. There was no one on her mother’s
side, and the identity of her father had never been confirmed. One of
the last times she was in Sweden, she was called to a country hospital,
where she visited an old man on his deathbed. What they spoke about has
never been revealed, but her closest friends were convinced that this
was her father, who had periodically lived in her home when she was a
child.
Carina was terrified of death, but realised that something must be done about the fortune she would leave behind. A will had to be written, to outline her intentions, and to provide the best possible guarantee that the funds would last forever. One of her best friends was the then Swedish Minister of Justice, Herman Kling. Under his auspices, the will was written by the most skilled solicitor he could find. A new foundation (in addition to the first one, that is only concerned with the Carina Ari Award, and the second, which is the Carina Ari Library) was set up, ready to serve as her universal heir. The Carina Ari Memorial Foundation is dedicated to three purposes: to award scholarships to young dancers for studies abroad, to support deserving elderly dancers, especially in connection with illness, and to encourage research in the field of dance.
In the autumn of 1970, Carina broke her thigh in Buenos Aires. Doctors consider this a relatively minor medical condition, but her resistance was low due to diabetes. She was operated on, but the incision would not heal. After a long struggle, her brave dancer’s heart gave up, on Christmas Eve 1970. She rests alongside her husband in one of the most beautiful cemeteries in Holland.
Bengt Häger
Carina with
Bengt Häger
|
The
Will
In the conditions
that Carina Ari herself dictated, she appointed a couple of
personal friends whom she trusted to the board of directors
for life. A few others were appointed for the period that they
were active professionally in their respective dance-oriented
positions, such as the director of the Royal Opera, a ballerina,
a representative of the classical school, a representative from
the Swedish Association of Dance Teachers and a member of the
government.
The Swedish government
has promised to complement the board of directors whenever a
seat is vacated, and to ensure that the accounts are monitored
by public accountants.
The capital that Carina
Ari left to her Memorial Foundation amounted to SEK 12 million.
In 2000, the capital had grown to more than SEK 100 million.
This makes it the largest foundation in the world in its field.
Since the start, the Memorial Foundation
has awarded over a thousand scholarships to young dancers, supported
some fifty older dancers on a more permanent basis, inspired
an emerging interest in serious research subjects, and above
all acquired a prominent position in the international efforts
to salvage and maintain the immaterial cultural heritage of
dance to posterity. |