DIJANA MILOŠEVIĆ
Dijana Milošević is a theatre director, co-founder and artistic director of DAH Theatre in
Belgrade, Serbia, the first theatre laboratory in her country. In addition to directing socially
engaged theatre works, she has worked on issues of violence against women with the activist
group 'Women in Black', performing stories of women from Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Serbia and Croatia.
Dijana Milošević is a theatre director, co-founder and artistic director of DAH Theatre in
Belgrade, Serbia, the first theatre laboratory in her country. She is the co-funder of Natsha
Project (an international theatre network) and ANET (Association of Independent Theatre
Groups in Belgrade). She served as artistic director and programmer for different theatre
events and currently is the director of International School for Actors and Directors of DAH
Theatre. She tours with her work, gives lectures and workshops round the world. She also
writes essays about theatre for different national and international publications and
magazines. In addition to directing socially engaged theatre works of high aesthetic quality,
Dijana has worked on issues of violence against women with the activist group Women in
Black, performing stories of women from Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia.
She directs an international theatre school every summer, and has taught at US colleges and
universities on several occasions.
DAH Theatre
DAH theatre is an experimental Serbian theatre group founded in 1991 by Jadranka Anđelić
and Dijana Milošević, who had originally performed on the streets of Belgrade to protest
against the government’s acts of aggression. It produces politically driven, movement-
oriented works
In 2003 DAH Theatre enlarged its activities by founding DAH Theatre Research Centre
(DTRC) to deliver an ongoing program of workshops, lectures, seminars, guest performances
and festivals. The work of the Centre is aimed towards a constant exchange of knowledge,
experience and ideas amongst artists and participants from various theatrical and national
traditions.
In the last two decades, through their work, the members of DAH Theatre have strongly
opposed war and violence. In 1991, when the war started in Yugoslavia, DAH Theatre
immediately had to face questions such as: "What is the role and meaning of theatre? What
are the responsibilities and duties of artists in times of darkness, violence and human
suffering?'' The group decided to interrupt their work on the performance "Gifts of Our
Ancestors" to begin work on a new piece that could provide them with the answers to these
questions. Dah's first performance "This Babylonian Confusion" was based on the songs of
Bertold Brecht. An anti-war performance; it was presented outdoors in the centre of Belgrade
at a time when it was forbidden to even mention the war.
DAH is committed to social justice, healing the wounds of war and fighting the nationalist
agenda in Serbia, armed with the belief that the world can be changed through its
performances.
Under the leadership of Milošević, DAH has performed on every continent and trained
hundreds of performers from around the world in its International School for Actors and
Directors, recently renamed The DAH Theatre Institute.
http://www.dahteatarcentar.com/index_eng.html
Performances include:
In/Visible City, originally performed in 2005 in Belgrade, it is essentially a street
performance staged on a working city bus.
Crossing the Line based on texts from the book Women’s Side of War – a collection of
women’s testimonies about wars which occurred in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 – 1999.
The aims of the performance were to establish a process to deal with the past, reach the
audience emotionally and psychologically as well as to encourage women to start talking
about their experiences, the past and to participate in building democracy and peace.
Presence of Absence (2013) part of The Power of Remembrance project dealing with the post
traumatic memories of family members, particularly women, who are missing relatives and
need resolution since the wounds caused by disappearances can undermine relations between
groups and nations and can prevent society’s healing. Theatre is used to record the efforts for
resolution and deal with topics such as, how to make a place for remembrance, how can
absence be recorded, how to prevent these horrors from happening again.