DAVID DRAGAN
2025 Stones and their Whispers of old Stories film
25:00in collaboration with 
Noah Kohlbrenner "Stones and their Whispers of old Stories" is a sensorial meditation on the intersection of myth, landscape, and body. Set against the backdrops of the Valais Alps and Transylvanian Carpathians, the film unfolds as a dialogue between ancient narratives and contemporary movement. Through the lens of dance, space becomes both stage and symbol, where whispers of forgotten stories are etched into the fabric of the earth. With a quiet, observant gaze, the film invites reflection on the ephemeral and enduring, past and present, myth and memory.

A film by: David Dragan & Noah Kohlbrenner
Editor: Simona Volpe
DOP: Jelin Nichele
Choreography & Costumes: David Dragan
Sound & Sound Design: David Graudenz
Camera Assistance: Elias Bötticher
Music: David Dragan
Performers: Ilaria Rabaliati, Harumi Mumenthaler, Sebastien Kapps, Maren Sauer, Joel Leupi, Irina Danescu, Raluca Cristea, Andrei Nistor, Roxana Popa, Dorin Eremia
Interviews: Ursula Walser-Biffiger, Andreas Weissen, Tiberiu Dragan, Dorina Dragan

2024 fissures of tomorrow performance
48:00Topic Hub, SibiuFissures of Tomorrow travels through the tension between organic intimacy and mechanical rigidity, reflecting the erosion of authenticity under technological mediation. Through structured, repetitive movements, it questions whether we wield technology or are tethered to it—a matrix shaping perception and connection. Vulnerability fractures under the weight of surveillance, as the movement embodies the automation of our emotions in an algorithmic age.

with Silvana Neda, Erika Hera, Ana Luca, Raluca Cristea, Andreea Agapi, Sultana Alexandra Ioana

 
I,II&III video installation
15:00Diploma 24 ZHDK The project discusses the divergence between inherited mythologies and personal identity, questioning the boundaries of tradition through a queer lens. It explores the dissonance between societal ideals—success, virtue, union—and the fragmented self. Focusing on birth, marriage and death, it reimagines the narrative as a fluid, non-binary celebration of shapes, fears and myth. What remains when union is freed from tradition? The work interrogates belonging, joy, and the politics of desire, visualising the space between past constraints and future possibilities, where the self can reconstitute and redefine its own narrative.

with Ousmane Ba, Leonard Simon, Sagil Ilyas Md.Amin, Oana Popa

 
self embraces
(solo)performance
07:28Hauser&Wirth Zürich
for ‘Cathy Josefowitz. Release’ The performance looks at the balance between intimacy and self-disclosure, questioning how genuine connections last through constant technological change. Drawing on ideas from Byung-Chul Han, it highlights how technology often reduces vulnerability to spectacle, eroding the depth of human relationships. The notion of “media automatisation” reflects concerns about the mechanization of human behavior and its impact on emotional authenticity. Ultimately, the work challenges the audience to see vulnerability as a radical act, an impulse, a movement, essential to reconnecting with humanity in an algorithmically driven world.

 
fusion to cope
(solo)performance
12:38RUF, ViennaThe Romanian saying, “If you wear beads, you cry in the tavern,” captures the cultural tension and societal judgment men often face when expressing traits that challenge traditional masculinity. In the context of this performance, the proverb becomes a lens through which we examine the personal struggle to navigate a conservative, religious society that holds rigid ideals about what it means to be a “real man.” This performance delves into the complexities of identity, gender, and self-expression, shaping a possible journey of resistance and resilience.

2023 
may I be a body
video installation
4:24 A body emerges from stillness, caught between light and shadow, glitching through the line between being seen and concealed. Movement starts as a silent rebellion, a dance of becoming in the soft pull of light. Fragments ripple across six mirrored screens, splintering identity into shimmering echoes, endlessly refracted yet whole. A low, firm hum envelops the space, a threshold, a vibration, a portal inward. Time dissolves; in this suspended realm, the non-binary body transcends boundaries, weaving light, sound, and self into an infinite reflection.
a poem for the windvideo6:25 The video unfolds as a journey carried by the invisible currents of the wind—each tell a whisper, a presence, a world in motion. Where is home? Can it be touched, or does it slip through the fingers, a fleeting illusion swept away by the wind? Movements dissolve into the air, sculpting the wind’s silence, a dance of form and absence. Each gesture is a fragment of a larger, unseen conversation—a visual hymn to belonging. Breath becomes verse, movement a response, an echo in the void. In this interplay, transformation lingers only briefly, leaving behind a quiet trace. Here, the boundaries between the material and the immaterial dissolve. 

serenity of delusionperformance14:14Grote of Sint Janskerk, Schiedam
In this dance, performers trace the fading outlines of home, searching for its essence in the spaces between us. What remains when we leave, and what returns when we try to find our way back? Time blurs as bodies move through invisible maps, crossing boundaries, touching the air, lost in fleeting moments. Voices echo—mothers’ prayers, whispers of angels—yet home feels distant, transformed into something else, a scaffolding of beliefs. The dancers build and break, playing with their past, finding solace in each other’s presence, but never fully settled. Here, movement is a question, a longing, a search for where we belong, and what we must reclaim from the past.

with Maika Sontrop, Jill Kupers, Yoann Le Grand Lüthi, Ioana Mitroi, Mara Arts

transmuting shadows(solo)performance10:08
  In this performance, the shadow man of childhood is summoned from the depths of memory, a dark figure that once haunted with fear. Now, reinterpreted through the lens of trauma and queer identity, he becomes not an enemy, but a reflection of the self. A ritual—a dance of duality, where past and present embrace. Through this movement, the frightening becomes familiar, the frightening becomes a companion, the frightening becomes home. 


a polluted mindperformance12:13Kaskadenhalle, ZHdK Oil drips, an open vein between body and world, spilling of an unforgiving environment. We are the spaces we inhabit, yet the boundaries that define us are illusionary—products of greed, cradled in the ever-shifting flow of time. Drenched in oil, four bodies become liquid, merging with the stain of pollution, their movements an eerie dance of water’s distortion. The choreography pulses through mind, body, and nature, blurring the lines between them—an intimate, haunting reflection of how we are all marked, interconnected, and slowly unraveling in the wake of our own making.
with Marie da Silva, Lorenzzo Capecci, Lucie Froelich, Antonjija Dimitrievska