Resolution! Review
Thurs 1 February
Vandella Dance, Linda Gieres, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith
Even if she didn’t lay down the usual markers of contemporary dance in form and style, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith was true to its spirit: push the audience and question expectations. Deep and meaningless, she led her twelve dancers in a gushing lip-sync and jazz extravaganza to three sick-making Céline Dion songs. Let’s Talk about Love made the audience a mirror to live and filmed personal dancing, the kind you do in private – part catharsis, part piss-take. Inwardly cringing, we laughed out loud to a wilderness of emotional hair-thrashing and diabolical choreography. The evening was made by this joy of warped reality in a dance-world near stagnation.
Alexandra Baybutt
____________________________________________________________________
Resolution! Review
Thurs 1 February
Vandella Dance, Linda Gieres, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith
Just when you think Resolution! has no surprises left up its sleeve, along comes a project devoted to Celine Dion. Yes, Ms. Titanic herself. Jessyka Watson-Galbraith’s Let’s Talk About Love was clearly one chanteuse short of the full power ballad, and one of the funniest dance experiences to grace The Place stage in many a month.
Emoting and gyrating like the cast of High School Musical giddy on a cask of rum, Watson-Galbraith and her eleven fools for love ‘interpreted’ a trio of Dion belters with an open-hearted élan that so ingenuously blended sincerity and satire it was impossible not to fall under its spell. The ragged, under-rehearsed feel of its semi-showbiz musical moves actually worked in its favour, catching the feel of dancing round your bedroom with a hairbrush in your hand. Weird. But kinda wonderful.
Keith Watson
____________________________________________________________________
londondance.com and flailbox.wordpress.com
Lindsey Clarke, 3rd February 07
Taking Canadian diva, Celine Dion, as the ultimate embodiment of the commercial exploitation of love, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith plays with the idea of what is good and bad quality in several forms: dance, film and music. The cast have been messing around with poor quality videos of them dancing in bedrooms and singing along to Celine on YouTube for months and several of these feature as a backdrop to the performance. The intention, it seems, was to use this tawdry, sentimental music (pop schmaltz 'low' culture), contrast it with contemporary dance moves (supposedly a 'high' art form but also poking fun at its seriousness) and have it performed by a cast of 13 young women dressed ready for bed but actually convey real emotion through the drama and blowsiness of La Dion. The piece is really good fun and like nothing I've seen at Resolution! before. The opening section is the most rehearsed and straightfowardly enjoyable with the ensemble executing serious contemporary dance moves in their own style whilst feeling the love from Celine and lip-synching along. After that, it gets a bit more shambolic - too improvised and shabby for 12 of the cast whilst one, spotlit downstage, almost performs the same dance moves as the girl in the dodgy video behind her - which is effective - but too much undisciplined activity going on around her detracts from it. However, this was very nearly cracking in its shambolic appeal and was definitely the crazy icing on a tasty three tiered Resolution cake.
Thurs 1 February
Vandella Dance, Linda Gieres, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith
Even if she didn’t lay down the usual markers of contemporary dance in form and style, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith was true to its spirit: push the audience and question expectations. Deep and meaningless, she led her twelve dancers in a gushing lip-sync and jazz extravaganza to three sick-making Céline Dion songs. Let’s Talk about Love made the audience a mirror to live and filmed personal dancing, the kind you do in private – part catharsis, part piss-take. Inwardly cringing, we laughed out loud to a wilderness of emotional hair-thrashing and diabolical choreography. The evening was made by this joy of warped reality in a dance-world near stagnation.
Alexandra Baybutt
____________________________________________________________________
Resolution! Review
Thurs 1 February
Vandella Dance, Linda Gieres, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith
Just when you think Resolution! has no surprises left up its sleeve, along comes a project devoted to Celine Dion. Yes, Ms. Titanic herself. Jessyka Watson-Galbraith’s Let’s Talk About Love was clearly one chanteuse short of the full power ballad, and one of the funniest dance experiences to grace The Place stage in many a month.
Emoting and gyrating like the cast of High School Musical giddy on a cask of rum, Watson-Galbraith and her eleven fools for love ‘interpreted’ a trio of Dion belters with an open-hearted élan that so ingenuously blended sincerity and satire it was impossible not to fall under its spell. The ragged, under-rehearsed feel of its semi-showbiz musical moves actually worked in its favour, catching the feel of dancing round your bedroom with a hairbrush in your hand. Weird. But kinda wonderful.
Keith Watson
____________________________________________________________________
londondance.com and flailbox.wordpress.com
Lindsey Clarke, 3rd February 07
Taking Canadian diva, Celine Dion, as the ultimate embodiment of the commercial exploitation of love, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith plays with the idea of what is good and bad quality in several forms: dance, film and music. The cast have been messing around with poor quality videos of them dancing in bedrooms and singing along to Celine on YouTube for months and several of these feature as a backdrop to the performance. The intention, it seems, was to use this tawdry, sentimental music (pop schmaltz 'low' culture), contrast it with contemporary dance moves (supposedly a 'high' art form but also poking fun at its seriousness) and have it performed by a cast of 13 young women dressed ready for bed but actually convey real emotion through the drama and blowsiness of La Dion. The piece is really good fun and like nothing I've seen at Resolution! before. The opening section is the most rehearsed and straightfowardly enjoyable with the ensemble executing serious contemporary dance moves in their own style whilst feeling the love from Celine and lip-synching along. After that, it gets a bit more shambolic - too improvised and shabby for 12 of the cast whilst one, spotlit downstage, almost performs the same dance moves as the girl in the dodgy video behind her - which is effective - but too much undisciplined activity going on around her detracts from it. However, this was very nearly cracking in its shambolic appeal and was definitely the crazy icing on a tasty three tiered Resolution cake.
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