Spectators who were hoping to attend the show by renowned Brazilian director and choreographer Deborah Colker on Friday night were left with their tickets in hand. The presentation, one of the highlights of the Cervantino International Festival, was suspended due to a delay in the delivery of the company’s equipment, which was traveling in containers from Colombia. The Brazilian artist, who participates in the festival with the staging Dogs without feathersseemed indignant on Saturday morning during a press conference to discuss her participation in Guanajuato, in central Mexico. “I ran to be here yesterday and to do the show. “I was very frustrated,” Colker said. “For me this is unacceptable, because the most important thing in my life is the public. If a person has bought a single ticket and this happens and they cannot see the presentation, that kills me,” stated the Brazilian artist.
The delay at customs at the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) was three days, without being explained exactly why the equipment, necessary to mount a work of contemporary art praised by critics and one of the Cervantino’s most anticipated pieces, to the point that the box office is sold out. “We fought, but they did not release them,” said João Elías, executive director of the dance company. “Everyone put pressure, the Brazilian embassy, Cervantino, but it took much longer,” he added. Elías has stated that the Mexican customs authorities blamed the transportation company that the company hired to carry out the shipment from Colombia, “but it is a completely upright firm,” he defended. “This is the first time something like this has happened,” he said.
Mariana Aymerich, director of the festival, told EL PAÍS that they had alerted the company that all shipments that arrive in Mexico from Colombia have specific reviews “for reasons that we all know”, that is, policies against organized crime and transfer of drugs from Mexico to the United States. “They hired the customs people of their convenience and when they arrived in Mexico the cargo did not arrive in a single container, five pieces were missing, and if it does not arrive complete they cannot review it due to protocols that we are not going to skip,” Aymerich explained. .
The official has reported that when they found out that the shipment was being held, they requested the support of the National Guard, who are in charge of the Felipe Ángeles airport in Mexico City. “Fortunately there was a good response. The protocols were done as they should, but the delay in the fact that the customs people did not send the complete load was what caused this unfortunate delay. It is not the first time that these things have happened to the festival, but we react quickly and as we are part of the Ministry of Culture they always support us a lot in the call for help,” he explained.
The shipment finally left at ten at night on Thursday heading to Guanajuato and arrived at seven in the morning on Friday, late considering the time the dance company needs to prepare the staging of the work. “The entire work program had to be changed, from the technical part, from the assembly and since the show is very beautiful and has many elements, it was not arrived on time and the company wants it to be presented as it should be and that is why we decided to suspend that function and that it is assembled with all the elements.” The Deborah Colker Dance Company will give two presentations in Guanajuato, one of them this Saturday afternoon, at the State Auditorium.
The Brazilian artist did not hide her indignation at what happened. “It’s the Police’s fault, they couldn’t do something like that to us. “They do things they shouldn’t do in the name of drug research, but they are always investigating what they shouldn’t,” he said. “The Police are doing their job, but they didn’t need to be so demanding,” Elías qualifies. “We know they have to be careful. Since we came from Colombia we had a lot of people waiting at customs. There must be a better channel, where culture has a priority, like food, because if the cargo does not arrive on time there is no show. Culture should have special treatment, not so harsh. “They do their job, but what they did was too much,” criticized the executive director.