Jillat - Sami Dance Center
Jillat is the name of a building and a place for professional artistic creation in Vuollerim, in the Swedish part of Sápmi.
The word jillat means to shimmer in Lule Sámi. It can describe a star shimmering in the sky, the eyes of a five-year-old encountering performing arts for the first time, or the moment when inspiration begins to shimmer in the heart.
From a Need to a Place
In 2023, we toured 130 performances and employed many dancers in Norrbotten. Region Norrbotten and Rebecka Strand invited us to pause for one week and consider what could make our work more sustainable.
We realised that we needed a place where professional performing arts could be created locally. A place that would allow us to work in a rural area without always travelling long distances to residencies in larger cities.
The search began around Jokkmokk. When the first alternatives were too limited, Liv Aira asked the municipality to think bigger. We wanted to welcome artists and performing arts professionals from Sápmi and from other countries. We needed a place that could hold that ambition.
We were then shown a former museum in Vuollerim that had been closed for ten years.
Seeing the Possibilities
The building was still filled with objects from its earlier life as a museum, but we immediately saw what it could become.
There was room for a large dance studio, a theatre, a music studio and a duodji and craft studio. This was not simply going to be a workspace for our own activities. It could become the world’s first Sami dance center.
A Building That Makes Room for Big Ideas
Jillat is a bright, open building with windows facing the sky, the landscape and the surrounding forest. Artists can follow the changing light, the seasons and the rhythm of the day while they work.
Artists who have stayed here describe how the openness and long views create room for big ideas. Unlike a closed black box, where time and place can disappear, Jillat keeps the surrounding world present throughout the working process.
A fireplace stands along one of the short walls of the main studio. It offers a natural gathering place in the morning and a warm meeting point during the winter.
An Artist-Led Place
Jillat has been developed by artists with experience of touring, producing work and participating in residencies. This helps us recognise and address challenges that artists encounter during a working period.
Our methods are shaped by our own experiences and by what visiting artists tell us. We continue to interview and listen to the people who work here. Continuous improvement is a natural part of how Jillat develops.
A Home Stage for Dance from Sápmi
Professionally trained Sami dancers have not previously had a shared place for their work. Jillat offers a home stage where dance from Sápmi can be researched, created, rehearsed and presented.
Sami artists should not have to spend the beginning of every working period explaining what it means to be Sami or suddenly becoming responsible for answering every question about Indigenous peoples.
At Jillat, artists can begin with their artistic work. The non-judgemental environment creates space to explore the relationship between Sami identity and professional artistic identity, to ask difficult questions, make mistakes and try again.
Open to More Voices
Jillat is a Sami dance center, but it is not limited to one art form, identity or geography. It is a professional production place for independent performing arts and for artists working in rural and sparsely populated areas.
We particularly welcome artistic perspectives and subjects that remain underrepresented. Our experience of receiving Indigenous artists has taught us to slow down, ask additional questions and pay attention to needs that institutions can otherwise overlook. That experience also supports our work with artists who have disabilities or other requirements for accessibility and adaptation.
Organisation
Jillat is the name of the building and the place. It is not a separate legal organisation.
Aira Dance Company AB is responsible for Jillat and currently rents the building. The company develops and supports cultural infrastructure, including spaces, equipment, logistics, touring resources and knowledge about creating and producing work in an Arctic climate.
Invisible People Contemporary Dance is a non-profit association that carries out much of its work at Jillat. The association supports underrepresented subjects in society and provides a home for the activities of Invisible People Contemporary Dance Company.
Artists, projects and audiences come to Jillat from Sápmi, the Nordic region and other countries. The work is therefore not limited to Vuollerim or Jokkmokk municipality. Jillat is locally rooted and internationally connected.
Part of Vuollerim
The building has held a central place in Vuollerim since it was constructed in 1990. Many local residents have personal memories connected to it, and the restoration of the building has been met with warmth, gratitude and curiosity.
Today, Jillat is an active workplace for professional artists and a place where the local community can encounter performing arts, concerts, exhibitions, workshops and conversations.
Children, young people, adults and older residents meet here. During school holidays, a two-year-old and a seventy-year-old might sit beside each other painting or making something together.
We regularly ask people in the village what they would like to experience in the building. Jillat should remain a place where professional artistic work and local participation can exist side by side.
Why Jillat exists
Artistic creation needs time, space and good working conditions where the process can take time before any presentation. Jillat exists to give artists room to explore unfinished ideas, take artistic risks and work without having to arrive with all the answers already in place. We believe that meaningful artistic development requires trust, continuity and an environment where different perspectives and ways of working are treated with care. By connecting an artist-led place in Vuollerim with local realities, Indigenous perspectives and international exchange, Jillat creates conditions for artistic processes that can grow beyond a single residency or event.
The organisation
Jillat – Sami Dance Center is a place and artistic infrastructure in Vuollerim. It is operated by Aira Dance Company AB. Some projects and public programmes are developed together with the non profit Invisible People Contemporary Dance and other partners.
The place
The dance studio
Our big dance studio has light coming in from all sides and the windows open up for you to feel like you are working in and with nature every day. We wanted the whole place to feel like a canvas for art, so as much as possible of the electronic stuff is hidden away. The floor is custom built with a 6mm spring effect to reduce the risk of injuries for the dancers and circus artists and on top of that is a floorwork dancecarpet from Harlequin in Luxemburg.
The fire place
A natural meeting place in all indigenous settings is the fire place. We installed a beautiful and effective fireplace in the big studio that gives the house some really cosy warmth, and many of our visitors love to sit by the fire when coming here.
The amphitheater
For smaller performances or if you are working on a solo or duett, there is also a professional dance floor in our amphitheatre. This stage area is 8x5m in an almond shape. The room can fit up to 150 people and has amazing acoustics. We installed a 5.1 cinema system and we have a great laser projector, giving a cool 200" for your video sharing, a movie or some background effects for the concert. Artists that were here compliment the sound and say it is the best place they ever sang in.
The green room
We have some custom built make up tables with big mirrors and light specially designed for the space. This is where you prepare for a show or a concert if you are here to do that. It's also common for artists to use this area for their admin work.
The music studio
Our music studio has all the things you need to create music or record both vocals or instruments. On the MacMini you find software like Logic Pro and we have an Universal Audio Apollo X8p gen 2 soundcard nicely mounted on the table of the music studio. We have a range of microphones from the Shure SM58 to the Neumann U87 Ai Studio set. Our keyboard is a Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 MK3 +. If you bring your own computer you could of course just hijack the connected system and bypass the MacMini. With the Dante network you can also connect to the stagebox in the amphitheatre to record live concerts or a band in production.
The meeting place
In our meeting place, Aktitit, we invite ideas and creativity. This is also where we sometimes eat lunch or dinner with artists. The room is equipped with a lot of stuff for crafting and to paint.
A safe and non-judgemental workplace
A very important part of this work place is the moral ground that we build it upon. We tell everyone that visits us or come to work here a longer period, that it's supposed to be a safe space for creation and a non-judgemental place. This is also up to you to help out with when you visit us. Take some extra time to think about it and this could be a place for you to visit not just once, but for many years to come.
