Inevitable friction

In 1852, the Sámi inhabitants of Kautokeino rebelled against the Norwegian authorities and the policies of forced assimilation that sought to make them abandon their language and traditions: a revolt violently repressed, which remained on the margins of history books for more than a century.
This is where Láhppon/Lost begins, created by Sámi choreographer and director Elle Sofe Sara together with Icelandic artist Hlín Hjálmarsdóttir, for the Norwegian National Ballet.

Sara grew up and lives in Guovdageaidnu, the Sámi name for Kautokeino itself: for her, the rebellion is not a textbook episode, but rather a story of family and community.
o-founder of the Indigenous art collective Daíddadállu, she has built a career that intertwines choreography and cinema, often addressing powerful themes that Sámi culture still struggles to confront openly, from trauma to suicide.
This year she also made her debut as a film director with Árru, presented at the Berlinale in the Panorama section: the story of a Sámi community threatened by a mining project, told without concessions to folklore.

On stage are nineteen dancers from the Norwegian National Ballet of the Oslo Opera House, who premiered this work last year on the theatre’s main stage.
It is the first time that a Sámi artist has directed a creation for the company, and the gesture carries as much weight as the content itself: returning to academic dance an episode belonging to a collective memory that has long remained silent.
The set and costumes are by fashion designer Henrik Vibskov, who creates a futuristic stage landscape inspired by Sámi construction techniques; the lighting is by Øystein Heitmann.
The music, composed by Valgeir Sigurðsson, includes newly created joik – the traditional Sámi chant – together with the Vokal Nord choir, for a physical narrative shaped by fear, injustice and hope.
In Láhppon/Lost, Elle Sofe Sara brings the same attention to bodies as witnesses of history that characterises her work as a documentary filmmaker.
Classical ballet, a language by definition European, is placed here at the service of a culture that Europe itself has attempted to erase: the tension between the two traditions remains visible in every step.