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DADA
An Essay in Movement about journalist Dada Vujasinović
The Hleb Theatre, Serbia

Concept, Direction and Performance: Sanja Krsmanović Tasić
Video, Set Design and Programme Design: Anastasia Tasić
Music: Aleksandra Đokić
Costume: Boris Čakširan
Research and Assistance in Dramaturgy: Jelena Veljković and Maja Domonji
Project Associates: Aleksandra Vujasinović
Production of Props: Arbos Woodworks – Nikola Tasić
Production of Costumes: Fashion Studio MA – Marija Anastasijević
Coproduction: The Bitef Theatre and the Association of Dramatic Artists of Serbia (UDUS)

Running time: 75 minutes

The play received the ‘Branislav B. Čubrilović’ prize at the Festival PatosoOFFiranje in Smederevo (Serbia) in July 2014, which is given to the author with the bravest and most innovative approach to art. 


DADA - An Essay in Movementis a performance about Dada Vujasinović, a journalist of the magazine Duga, who, at the beginning of the war in Yugoslavia, reported from the field, and then continued writing about the events on the political and social scene of Serbia in an open, clear and truthful way. She lost her life under the circumstances that have never been explained on 8th April 1994. She was thirty years old.
An essay in movement as a variation of a theatrical essay is a new stage expression and concept developed by authoress Sanja Krsmanović Tasić. In this form, through artistic actions, real life events and phenomena are shown with (self)critical reflections of their origin and consequences. The essay is always presented through elements of personal history put into a context of social events that have influenced it directly. Movement and dance have always been the authoress’s primary form of expression, hence some essays have to be written in movement.
As any essay, this one also contains footnotes presented at the very beginning. The footnotes consist of fragments of memories and facts, and artistic interventions, which, as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, eventually, depict the life and work of Dada Vujasinović, as well as the times she grew up and died in, with a special emphasis on the last four years of her life. The audience can choose the order in which the footnotes will be presented in the theatre space, through texts, videos, scenes or interventions in space. The essay as such happens at the very end of the performance.

The Hleb Theatre is an artistic project and a troupe consisting of interdisciplinary artists-activists of different generations and backgrounds connected by a passion towards performing arts, in the fields of theatre and artistic dance, the process/research theatre and subjects that are provocative and socially and politically engaged. Music, visual arts, artistic dance, physical theatre, performance art and poetry are the skills and means they use in creating the performances with an awakening and, primarily, healing character. The Hleb Theatre is also dedicated to artistic education through workshops and projects, as it believes that helping young artists to develop and form is one of their key missions. Through international collaborations, co-productions and activities on the international scene, they connect the culture and engaged production as well as artists from our country with their peers all over the world.

Other productions by the Hleb Theatre are:
- Tales of Bread and Blood, 2011.
- Sisters in Arms, 2014.

“(…) All the scenes are highly poetical, theatrically imaginative and very, very suggestive. The efforts invested by the entire team of associates of the authoress and performer Sanja Krsmanović Tasić have paid off to a great extent. Gentleness and human warmth give the main tone to the play, presenting the proper way of deep REBELLION against violence and death, which is suggested by this important venture. The authoress has shown both skill and talent in the choice of the expressive means, but most importantly, her noble work has brought the brave and tragic figure of Dada Vujasinović closer to the audience and created an indelible memorial to this brave and tragic young woman, who paid a large bill of the time in which she dared the forces of darkness that eventually engulfed her. I offer my gratitude for this work and congratulations for the moral and artistic attitude of the authoress. BRAVO!”      
Goran Cvetković, Radio Belgrade, 08.04.2014
Prineted in Novi Magazin and BETON

“Each fragment is shaped into a whole with dramaturgical precision, their sequence achieving strong sense of rhythm, and the audience is additionally drawn into events by choosing the order of footnotes. The essay as such, Sanja’s voiceless and dancing review of the entire story comes at the very end, as a crown of this authentic and theatrically important procedure. This is an exciting performance, imaginative, emotional... Awakening.” 
Aleksandra Glovacki, Programme Culture, Radio Belgrade, Studio 202, 11.04.2014

“This performance, just like Dada’s book, has to be part of the informative and educational process, some kind of catharsis for Dada’s contemporaries, and a unique signpost for the future journalists.”
Veran Matić, Politika, 09.04.2014