Bitef

After thirteen years of work in DAH Theatre, after all my wanderings, research, breaking of clich'es (patterns), to create new cliche's that need to be broken all over again, after embodying new (new for me, but ancient) Systems, techniques, exercises, quests; after all these years sometimes I think I am just at thè beginning, that I know nothing, that with thè sincerity and innocence of a four decades old child, I venture to start from a new source, on a new path that cannot be walked on, but may beflown over. That was my way of working on this performance. In DAH Theatre's kitchen for many years, we actors would serve our director Dijana Milosevic raw material, spices, vegetables, meats, from which she would, slowly and patiently prepare a meal that would be served to thè public. That would be our performance. A feast for all senses that sometimes hurts thè guts, or makes thè little grey celis datier, that poses questions or provokes painfui issues, but a meal that would alwaysalso nourish and feed thè spirit and soul. After all these years, me, an actress in her quest, does not offer thè director raw material, but an already prepared dish, maybe a sauce, or side dish or dessert, but all in all, more complex material. This material follows thè thread of my inner dialogues, where I come back to my initial contemplations, to thè search for simple actions, Statements with a clear, but stili multilayered message, something that borders with performance art as a form. And so I return to thè moment of my personal turning point and thè distant 1992. When disappointed with thè speechlessness of my expression in dance I wished to create performance art actions that would express my attitude about thè war and thè Situation in which we were, to transform from an artist creating art for thè sake of art, a dancer, into an engaged artist of performative arts. My fortune and destiny led me to find my voice with my co-fighters, "thè warriors of iight"from DAH Theatre, returning sense to what I was doing, and with them I continued to develop as an artist and human being, I believe that thè work on this performance iasted so long not only because of our tra-vels and thefact that we worked simultaneously for two years on another performance: Alice and Kafka are Dead/long Live thè Rosenbergs, a co-production with thè theatre, 7 Stages, from Atlanta, but also because we were searching for thè right theme. From thè rejected material we could bave created a couple of performances. For example: The legend about tea, history and rituals, then an absurd story of sisters with eyes as red as rabbits eyes and hair grey from ashes, interlaced with songs and chanting, that we wrote together with thè piaywright Ruth Magraff, also The Tea party with thè Mad Hatter, then a versión of Beckett's Steps. Just as our country, we were also searching for thè right identity of thè performance and thè right way to articúlate it. Our homeland changed its name and territory again, but it seemed to leave us more indifferent than thè many times previously. It seems that our country, on her journey to better life, wandered off again. And we as a group, after our many wanderings, polished what we thought was thè most important from our many attempts to teli thè story of our present moment. And this meal, this feast, we offer you. With tea.

Sanja KrsmanovicTasic