The Carina Ari Medal 2022

This year, the Carina Ari Medal is awarded to Alexander Ekman for meritorious contributions to the Swedish dance.

Alexander Ekman. Photo: Ann Ray.

The jury's statement: Alexander Ekman is a ballet dancer who has made a name for himself early in his career for being a visually powerful and ever-surprising choreographer. For more than 15 years, he has been in high demand at international dance companies and major opera houses, encouraging dancers to let go and improvise in playful, bold works where everything from cacti and water to hay and balls carry the performance. His monumental, often entertaining dance pieces appeal to a broad audience but can also be seen as the choreographer’s personal reflection on his work, his roots in classical ballet and his urge to embark on new paths.

Like a polymath, Alexander Ekman has also experimented with different scales and media. His dance films are inventive little works of art. In recent years, he has also proven his fundamental skills as a dancer, in productions such as the intergenerational “Kuckel” at Orionteatern. In “Vanmakt” at Artipelag, Ekman takes a huge step forward by creating a spatially choreographed visual work of art that involves the viewers in a sequence of events – and prompts them to contemplate issues such as power, weakness and group behaviour, as in many of his works

Anna Ångström, on behalf of the Medal Committee, the Carina Ari Memorial Fund

The members of the Carina Ari Foundation’s medal committee are:
Anna Ångström, critic and editor at SvD,
Ana Laguna, professor and Royal Court Dancer, and
Rennie Mirro, dancer and actor.