(Be)coming

Maša Kagao Knez, dance; Nasheet Waits, drums; Aruan Ortiz, piano; Irena Yebuah Tiran, Leticia Slapnik Yebuah, vocal 

The project (Be)coming, which will have its premiere at Cankarjev dom, took shape during an artist residency in New York, where the creative energies of dancer and choreographer Maša Kagao Knez and drummer Nasheet Waits intertwined. At a certain point in their careers, both were inspired by the ideas of Frantz Fanon, a philosopher and psychiatrist from Martinique, particularly in works that reflect on questions of identity, becoming and temporality – in their case, through music and movement.

Knez’s past projects, viewed through the lens of Fanon’s theory, reflect the process of establishing one’s identity amid all the accompanying projections, pressures, and expectations of one’s environment – or society at large. The central theme of her dance performances is a questioning of the self, in the sense of: have my decisions been guided by the expectations of others? Were the expectations of those around me different from what I have become? Is this what I’m supposed to be doing, or are there other possibilities and opportunities I could have taken and explored but didn’t, because of the expectations of others? Could I find a different version of myself in these other possibilities?

Waits reflects on Fanon’s insights in one of his albums, titled Between Nothingness and Infinity (taken from a quote in Fanon’s book Black Faces, White Masks), and observes: “The infinite possibilities of becoming or of perceiving one’s own self are conditioned by one's capacity to experience his/her environment. An environment that shapes the individual’s identity. I’m thinking about which factors influence our perception of time, our sense of self, and the conditions under which we shape our identity.”

This space between nothingness and infinity, as Waits muses is place/time where and when everything is still possible – or nothing at all. Every tone, sound, pattern, gesture, and idea has the potential to become and to evolve into anything. In that moment between already and not yet, the possibilities are limitless.
Maša Kagao Knez describes the similar state she finds herself in, both creatively and personally: “I feel like I’m becoming something. I don’t know exactly who. I'm certainly not who I used to be, nor who I thought I would become. I’m caught between what I was and what I will be, between what seemed important to me and what remains of it. I’m in the state of (be)coming and leaving. But when I dance I just am. Present and stripped from my intrusive thoughts. That’s my anchor, the moment when, I feel like my existence has a meaning.”

In the creative process, this is the moment when time stands still. From everyone involved it demands genuine presence, complete focus, and a readiness to make split-second decisions and react immediately to the call of the Other. Emmanuel Levinas would call this state “pure availability.” It is the most crucial moment when the worlds of the artists in this project collide and intertwine.

But becoming is not a peaceful transformation. Fanon, who understands becoming as a psycho-political (r)evolution that always takes place in a dialectical relation to the world (he specifically refers to decolonization, which for him is literally the process of becoming a new human being), does not envisage a peaceful transition. Rather, it is a state of disorder, of deconstruction, which shatters the boundaries of the existing system and hierarchies and carves out possibilities for new self-awareness and new relationships with others.

Maša Kagao Knez, Nasheet Waits, Aruan Ortiz, Irena Yebuah Tiran and Leticia Slapnik Yebuah will meet and create possibilities between already and not yet.