I Have the Need to Never Arrive

• Published in: Performance research Vol. 28; no. 8; pp. 74 - 84
• Main Authors: Eylül Fidan Akinci, Da Soller, Roberta, Rutgeerts, Jonas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis Ltd 01-12-2023
• Subjects: Black Lives Matter movement; Identity; Imagination; Pandemics; Violence
• ISSN: 1352-8165; 1469-9990
• DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2023.2386837

The pandemic period coincided with significant sociopolitical upheavals, such as the Black Lives Matter protests and a profound reckoning with colonial histories worldwide. As the lockdowns ended, a new war would switch on the global military machine and, at the time of writing, yet another genocidal conflict has underscored the need to redefine political alliances beyond identity – a warning already articulated by Hannah Arendt over fifty years ago. The resurfacing of deeply embedded societal oppressions has not led to reckoning and reparation but rather to further cycles of violence, making the imagination of a new world a political imperative. The choreographer Cherish Menzo (1988) exemplifies this imaginative effort through her acclaimed evening-length performances JEZEBEL (2019) and DARKMATTER (2022). In a dialogue with Menzo, we delve into the ineffable nature of her work, which challenges traditional analytical frameworks and resists articulation within Eurocentric paradigms. Despite this, the aesthetic and political potentiality of her proposals resonate deeply, prompting critical reflection and creating unprecedented poetics and spaces of engagement. Our conversation with Menzo, reconstructed with interspersed thoughts and tangents in italics, aims to capture the continuous motion and activation her performances inspire. Menzo’s work critically engages with temporality and community, embodying a revolutionary potential that speaks to the present moment. This collaborative text aspires to convey the transformative impact of Menzo’s artistic vision, highlighting its relevance in the context of contemporary societal challenges and the urgent need for new political and aesthetic imaginations.