The following description comes from the event organizer.

What is yoik? What does it feel like to yoik? What can it reveal to us about ourselves and our world?

In this one-hour zoom class, Sapmi musician, composer, and actor Ingor Ántte Áilu Gaup, (Ailloš) will introduce us to yoiking, the traditional singing of the Sapmi people. The Sami are the indigenous people of Sapmi, which extends across Northern Scandinavia and Northwestern Russia. More than simply a “style of singing,” yoiking is an ancient practice that reflects a way of being and relating to the world that is rare in modern times.

Ailloš will demonstrate various yoiks including people, animal, and historical yoiks. He will discuss the history, as well as the uses, content, and technique of yoiks. Why does one yoik? Why are yoiks described as circular? Finally, he will offer participants a chance to try yoiking. Questions will be welcome.

Meet your instructor, Ingor Ántte Áilu Gaup

Ailloš was raised in a reindeer herding family in Kautokeino in northern Norway. While traditional Sapmi culture, including the Sapmi languages and yoiking, was repressed for many generations, Ailloš learned to yoik as a child, and he has carried this gift with him, cultivating it and sharing it with others, for his entire life.

For over 40 years he has been performing on stages, at home, and abroad. As a musician, actor, composer, poet and teacher, he has shared the art of yoiking and Sámi culture with people across the globe. Ailloš has received several awards for his yoiking and composition, including the Northern Lights Prize (Nordlysprisen), and the Áillohaš Music Prize (Áillohaš Musikkpris), and he was nominated for the Edvard Grieg award.