La Jornada: Fetish transforms Zygmunt Bauman’s reflections into dance

Con Fetish, choreographer Luis Ortega brings to body language the inability to live full relationships under a system that commodifies everything, even affection. Performed by the company Uróboros Escena, the piece was presented this weekend at the Danza UNAM hall.

In an interview, the group’s director also commented that Fetish was created from the works liquid times y consumer life, by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman.

For the creator, capitalism directly impacts our ways of bonding. His work exposes that we play a similar role to commercial products.

It is the commercialization of affections. “We believe that we decide autonomously, that we are aware of our relationships, but getting out of that systemic circle is complex,” he stated.

Using corporality and contemporary dance, the dancers explore the depths of the human being and his inability to love in times of consumerism, in which the value of personal relationships is subject to consumption and the added value of things.

Fetish It is a look at intimate and social relationships, where a deep sense of dissatisfaction, loneliness and disenchantment prevails. An apartment, a celebration and a couple; the absence of any hint of transcendence. A portrait of hostile happiness.

Luis Ortega commented that next year marks a decade since the creation of Fetish, his first work as a choreographer. “It has a special meaning for me and for the company. This project arose from a personal need to present my perspective regarding human bonds and interpersonal relationships.”

Regarding the development of the proposal, the director points out that everything happens within a department to reflect confinement and containment. “The idea was to generate a choreographic discourse a little closer to theater, to action, mainly. It is a different way of conceiving contemporary dance and redefining the value of the body within space and thought,” he added.

He considered that disconnecting from the body, thoughts and relationships is “somewhat violent”; This is perceived in social networks, which in turn have become “consumer showcases.”

Through physical theater, Fetish It offers a space for dialogue to reflect on the desolation of current ties and the need to find genuine affections.

The work will be presented on June 18 and 19 at the Guillermina Bravo Dance Theater of the Centro Cultural del Bosque.