Thursday 14 September at 8pm, in Sala Mehta, the performance – in collaboration with Fabbrica Europa – “Vástádus Eana – The Answer is Land” by Elle Sofe Sara.

Only one date for the national premiere of the show

Florence, September 12th, 2023 – After the shows held in may 2019, the collaboration between the Teatro del Maggio and Fabbrica Europa is renewed: scheduled – Thursday September 14th 2023 at 8 pm in the national premiere and on a single date – in the Zubin Mehta Hall , the show “Vástádus Eana – The Answer is Land” by Elle Sofe Sara, a Norwegian choreographer, director and filmmaker with Sámi origin. Her creations are linked to the social, political and cultural reality of this indigenous people – who live between Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and who still maintain a deep connection with the land today – but they also tell the challenges of the contemporary world. Elle Sofe Sara is an artist who has made activism one of the central elements of her work. Her research focuses on the sense of community, migration, nomadism and the importance of protecting the environment.

Vástádus eana – The answer is land is rooted in ancient and ancestral themes but also absolutely current and perhaps more urgent. The yoik, mountain songs of the Sami tradition, act as a counterpoint to the dance, underlining the strong connection with the place, with nature and with solidarity.

The play is a tribute to all the people who resist where there are injustices. Elle Sofe Sara defines her show like this: “People often ask me how to define or with what eyes to look at this work: is it dance? is it a performance? is it music? is it theatre? is it something else? For me there is no need to give definitions. Vástádus eana – The answer is land is what it is. Just let yourself be carried away, feel it and live it.”

La scheda
The Answer is Land is a poem that Elle Sofe Sara came across years ago and which is part of Kiss From the Border, work by Jenni Laiti, Niillas Holmberg and Outi Piesku, in which eight lines of text were placed along the valley of the Deanu river, on the border between Finland and Norway. This project caught her attention because it represents political and activist art driven by love and not anger. For her, who lives in a Sámi village and society, love and connection with nature, with our surroundings, with people, are important. She felt the need to create an experience of dance and yoik (traditional Sámi songs) in which connection with place (land, nature) and solidarity were the main themes. This was the starting point of the project. Yoiks are mountain and nature-related songs. Some come from archives, others were composed by Frode Fjellheim, one was taught to her by an elder and one was written by Elle Sofe Sara herself.

La locandina

Coreography Elle Sofe Sara
Co-coregraphy Alexandra Wingate
Performer Kajsa Balto, Julie Moviken, Olga-Lise Holmen, Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska, Emilie Marie Karlsen, Nora Svenning, Grete Daling
Compositor Frode Fjellheim
Costumes Line Maher
Scenes Elin Melberg
Lights Øystein Heitmann
Drammaturgy Thomas Schaupp

Festival Fabbrica Europa XXX
The heart of the XXX edition of the Fabbrica Europa Festival – in dance, music, performing arts and their intersection – wants to be a reminder of the essentiality of the earth. Not in its objectivity, but in a sort of creative dream, in looking at those generative forces that inhabit it beyond time and history, beyond stereotypes and prejudices. A transversal path is represented by visionary female presences, protagonists on the scene with the power, depth and spirituality of archetypal figures or with the intensity of the most current social, political and cultural sign. From 8 September to 12 October, the Festival’s journey delves into the languages of contemporaneity, to be imagined as a vision with strong roots but with an eye towards the future. In particular, it will be a moment to reflect on the current condition of the performing arts thanks to the presence of great masters and new talents on the national and international scene. Artists who, through composite, hybrid multidisciplinary languages, tell of today’s fragility and challenges and evoke identities, rituals and signs of the past that help question the present.