2024
Vástádus eana (The Answer is Land) by Elle Sofe Sara (Guovdageaidnu, also known as Kautokeino, Norway)
See the printed matter: Show Poster / Show Program
See the event web page
It was Nathalie Bonjour, the Director of Performing Arts at Harbourfront in Toronto and curator for its international dance program, Torque, who told us about the Indigenous Sami artist Elle Sofe Sara from Norway. That was spring of 2023. The company was planning a cross-Canada tour for February 2024 and would Public Energy like to get in on it? They already had confirmed shows at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Harbourfront, so perhaps a stop in Peterborough between the two would be feasible? If I needed any help in deciding, well I was in luck because the company would be performing their newest work, Vastadus Eana, at Montreal’s Festival Trans-Amerique in May, just a month away. So I could view in person the very work that would be on tour.
Naturally I went. And was immediately smitten by the…what…singing is almost the wrong word for the haunting, chanting music created by those seven female Sami voices, which I learned is polyphonic. Meaning “a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody” according to Wikipedia. Layering these complex musical expressions onto choreography that moved from marching formations evoking demonstrations against police to tender moments of intertwining bodies supporting each other, it became clear that this was a completely original expression of opposition to the ecological damage being wrought on the world and especially on the lands of Indigenous people.
We immediately signed on to the tour as the sixth city to take part, sandwiched in between Ottawa and Toronto on a Sunday afternoon. Once committed, we slowly became aware of the unusual technical demands that the performance required. We already knew that it started outside the theatre, with the entire audience gathered in a nearby square where the performers brandished megaphones and chanted, with fists raised high. They would lead the audience into the theatre but not through the main entrance. Instead they’d enter the theatre backstage so that the audience would go across the stage, even brushing against the tall columns of fabric that made up the set, to find their seats. We knew about that. What we did not know was that the other-worldly lighting that bathed the stage at the start of the show (you can get a feel for it in the accompanying video) could only be created by hard to source sodium lights. The kind that illuminate parking lots in industrial parks. We contacted the National Arts Centre. What were they going to do? The answer came from the brilliant Brian Britton, their technical director for dance. They owned a set of sodium lights and the transformers needed to supply their unusual voltage. And they could be loaded onto the bus that Public Energy had chartered to get the company from Ottawa to Toronto. Phew.
We have yet to meet Elle Sofe Sara in person. She was unable to tour, needing to stay home to look after her recently born child. But the company she sent were amazing people as well as artists and gave us as much time as possible in only two days, taking part in a dinner given in their honour with local Indigenous artists and providing a touch tour prior to the performance where the blind and hard of seeing could experience the set and costumes. All in all, a magical experience and here’s hoping Elle Sofe will come along the next time the company comes to Canada.
-Bill Kimball
