PICTURES OF THE PROJECT

You will find a comprehensive pictorial over-view of the project here.

BOOTLEG VIDEO OF THE PERFORMANCE FILMED BY MELISSA'S BOYFRIEND

It's All Coming Back To Me Now



Pour Que Tu M'Aimes Encore



Because You Loved Me



Eyes On Me



Have You Ever Been In Love

Let's Talk About Love : Berlin : Compilation

100 minutes of video, 41 performances on YouTube, 23 dancers, 15 locations, 13 meetings, 9 discussions about love, 4 studio rehearsals, 1 group dinner, 1 alleged copyright violation, 1 blog.

200 million album sales, 200 songs - 198 about love, 172 career awards, 16 brothers and sisters, 11 world tours, 1 custom built arena in Las Vegas, 1 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Prix, 1 Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1 Order of Canada, 1 Legion D'Honneur, 1 husband/manager and 1 son.

Love comes to those who believe it, and that's the way it is.

All By Myself 3

28 May 2008
Location: Jessyka's apartment, Stockholm
Featuring: Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Beauty and The Beast

24 May 2008
Location: Siegmar's courtyard, Berlin
Featuring: Mim Wheeler and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

All By Myself 2

23 May 2008
Location: Kaya's apartment, Brussels
Featuring: Kaya Kolodziejczyk

Skies Of L.A. 3

23 May 2008
Location: Kaya's apartment, Brussels
Featuring: Kaya Kolodziejczyk

Si J'etais Quelq'un - Studio Rehearsal 3

23 May 2008
Location: Fischhaus, fabrik Potsdam.
Featuring: Isabell Gerschke, Melissa Maldonaldo, Eleonor Ilia, Ligia Soares, Cass Ginsberg, Jacqueline Fourny, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith, Rosalind Goldberg, Mim Wheeler, Cilgia Gadola.

Je Ne Suis Pas Celle

23 May 2008
Location: Masha's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Masha Pyatkova and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Look Into My Eyes

22 May 2008
Location: Big studio, fabrik Potsdam
Featuring: Isabell Gerschke, Melissa Maldonaldo, Eleonor Ilia, Ligia Soares, Cass Ginsberg, Jacqueline Fourny, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith, Dewa Bertschi, Stella Kiesslinger, Karla Novozimsky and Thereza Pommerenke

Falling In To You

22 May 2008
Location: Big studio, fabrik Potsdam
Featuring: Isabell Gerschke and Masha Pyatkova

Power Of A Dream

21 May 2008
Location: Rosalind's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Rosalind Goldberg and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

River Deep, Mountain High

20 May 2008
Location: Melissa's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Melissa Maldonado and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

If I Could

20 May 2008
Location: Tanz Fabrik Showers, Berlin
Featuring: Ligia Soares and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

All By Myself

20 May 2008
Location: Cass's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Cass Ginsberg and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

La Diva

19 May 2008
Location: Stella's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Dewa Bertschi, Stella Kiesslinger, Karla Novozimsky and Thereza Pommerenke

I'm Your Angel

19 May 2008
Location: Siegmar's apartment, Berlin
Fetauring: Elena and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Cass Ginsberg

Cass travelled around the globe as a child with her family and now lives in Berlin, she is German. She is also a talented singer. Her dance background centres around Butoh and recently performed at Dock 11 in Berlin.

Ligia Soares

Ligia Soares is a Portuguese performance artist. She creates performances with her identical twin sister. Here is a link to her blog, it's in Portguese but you can look at the pictures. Ligia is now based in Berlin. This is the first 'jazz' dance performance she has been a part of.

Skies Of L.A. 2

17 May 2008
Location: Tanz Fabrik carpark, Berlin
Featuring: Dewa Bertschi, Stella Kiesslinger, Karla Novozimsky and Thereza Pommerenke

Skies Of L.A.

16 May 2008
Location: Mari's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Mari Flønes and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Right Next To The Right One 2

16 May 2008
Location: Mari's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Mari Flønes and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Baby Think Twice 3

16 May 2008
Location: Mari's apartment
Featuring: Mari Flønes

Baby Think Twice 2

16 May 2008
Location: Helga's apartment
Featuring: Helga Wretman

Baby Think Twice

16 May 2008
Location: Thereza's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Dewa Bertschi, Stella Kiesslinger, Karla Novozimsky and Thereza Pommerenke

So This Is Christmas

16 May 2008
Location: Helga's apartment
Featuring: Helga Wretman and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

My Heart Will Go On 2

16 May 2008
Location: Thereza's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Dewa Bertschi, Stella Kiesslinger, Karla Novozimsky, Thereza Pommerenke and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Photo's of The Dinner

SEE HERE

At 19:00, Tuesday 13 May as many cast members as possible plus some other lovely people attended a dinner to celebrate a love of dance/pasta/each other/Berlin and so on.. The choreographer cooked pasta amidst cries of 'I've seen you in class before haven't I!'

A dance was produced, it's very wavy/up & down and beautiful. Thanks to Siegmar and Steven for the use of their wonderful apartment and to Marlie and Ulrike.

Dewa, Stella, Karla and Thereza

Dewa Bertschi, Stella Kiesslinger, Karla Novozimsky and Thereza Pommerenke are all undertaking their vorausbildnung at the Tanz Fabrik in Berlin. They finished high school last year. Dewa is Swiss and Stella, Karla and Thereza come form Stuttgart. Stella is travelling to Honduras after the course and Thereza would like to go to the North of Sweden where her father has a farm that hosts cultural projects. They all had a Steiner education and studied 13 years of Eurythmics. 3 of the 4 girls work at the same call centre near Warschauerstrasse. They are not absolutely determined to have a professional dance career, but they like dance, they have time now to give it a go and they want to move. They might continue one day with Tanztherapie.

Mim Wheeler

Mim is currently recovering from falling out a tree in Sydney and breaking her wrist, but it is healing well. Mim is a manager at Wagamama in Putney, London. She is known in Australia for her fearless dance work, and and has been likened to a monkey. She took this one step further in 2007 and spent ten days in a tree house with her own pet monkey in Cambodia.

Helga Wretman

Helga grew up in the theatre. She was a member of the Isadora Duncan inspired D Company in Stockholm and continued her dance studies in Stockholm. She moved to Berlin to pursue projects – not necessarily always sticking to the Contemporary Dance scene, although she does create her own choreographies. She has participated in the production of films, been a Bacardi dancer, performed at Gala’s for DHL, created choreographies for commercials and also freelanced for various choreographers in Sweden and Germany.

Cilgia Gadola

Cilgia is Swiss, and studied in Munich. She has been in Berlin for a year and a half and aside from her performance work she teaches teenagers dance in Kreuzberg. Last year she initiated the website tanzpresse.de which provides an opportunity for critique of Contemporary Dance performances here in Berlin. She writes for the website also. Her sister is moving to Los Angeles, and Cilgia will be passing through New York on her way to visit her in June. Cilgia gave up dance briefly when she was 11 to pursue an interest in horses, but started to take classes again seriously at the age of 15, and hasn’t stopped since.

Maria Pyatkova

Masha undertook her dance training in Novosibirsk. She moved from Russia to work at the Max Plank Institute in Göttingen in the field of Molecular and Genetic Biology. Here, in the absence of any training possibilities she taught classes in ballet and modern. She moved to Berlin a year and a half ago to pursue artistic projects, and complements performing and creating films with research in the field of Social Psychology.

Because You Loved Me 2

15 May 2008
Location: Siegmar's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

That's The Way It Is 2

15 May 2008
Location: Siegmar's backyard
Featuring: Eleonora Ilia & Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

That's The Way It Is

15 May 2008
Location: Cilgia and Angela's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Angela, Cilgia Gadola and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

This Time

15 May 2008
Location: Diane's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Diane Busuttil

Jacqueline Fourny

Jacqueline performed in the Potsdam performance of Isabell Schad and Good Work Production's 'Still Lives.' She has taken workshops in Krumping and Salsa.

Pour Que Tu M'Aimes Encore

14 May 2008
Location: Tanz Fabrik car park courtyard, Berlin
Featuring: kids, Melissa Maldonado, Isabell Gerschke & Masha Pyatkova

Studio Rehearsal 1

14 May 2008
Location: Studio 4, Tanz Fabrik, Berlin
Featuring: Melissa Maldonado, Mari Flønes, Isabell Gerschke, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith & Masha Pyatkova, Thereza Pommerenke and Dewa Bertschi.

Carpark Rehearsal

14 May 2008
Location: Courtyard/car park, Tanz Fabrik, Berlin
Featuring: Melissa Maldonado, Mari Flønes, Isabell Gerschke, Jessyka Watson-Galbraith & Masha Pyatkova.

Eyes On Me 4

14 May 2008
Location: Melissa's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Melissa Maldonado and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Feliz Navidad - Group Dinner

13 May
Location: Siegmar's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Most of the cast

The Power of Love

13 May 2008
Location: Siegmar's apartment
Featuring: Most of the cast

Isabell Gerschke

Isabell has starred in several German films and television series. She has been dancing since she was very young and she has earned income doing all sorts of dance work – from commercial, hip hop to her own contemporary choreographic explorations. She has a 4 year old daughter, who attends the classes she teaches for children at the fabrik Potsdam. She lives and works in Potsdam.

Love Can Move Mountains

13 May 2008
Location: Isabell's apartment, Potsdam
Featuring: Isabell Gerschke and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Photo's of Rehearsals

www.flickr.com Go to Let's Talk About Love's photostream

Bat For Lashes - What's a Girl To Do

Because You Loved Me

12 May 2008
Location: Siegmar's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Rosalind Goldberg and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

My Heart Will Go On

12 May 2008
Location: Siegmar's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Rosalind Goldberg and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Immortality

12 May 2008
Location: Cilgia's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Cilgia Gadola and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Right Next To The Right One

12 May 2008
Location: Mari's apartment, Berlin
Featuring: Mari Flønes and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Celine vs Harry

I found this on the website celinedreams.com (hilarious - it's a mash-up of interpretations about Celine's own dreams/dreams about Celine and information about Celine. The author's (Yuri) theory is that every fan wants to meet the object of his/her adoration. At its deepest level, in the beginning, celinedreams was a was a way to meet Celine in person. It's incredible.) Below the Harry Potter article there was an opportunity to directly purchase Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. What a co-incidence. Read more about Yuri here.

• Humble beginnings. A youngest of 14 children Celine comes from a humble family. The creator of Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling was a single mother on wealfare when she started writing the book about Harry.

• The magic. The magic of Celine's voice is one of the keys of her worldwide success. Celine is a born entertainer, she really likes what she does, and she does it well. A hard-worker Celine loves to share her talent with her fans. The Las Vegas show of Celine Dion "A New Day" has been built on magic. Also, the lastest album of Celine Dion is called "Miracle". Do you think it's a coincidence? Harry's magic comes from his education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
  
  
• Commercial success. Both Celine Dion and Harry Potter are now a billion dollar industry. Both generate millions in jobs, merchandise, etc. Celine's Las Vegas show contract brings her around 100 million over three years. J.K. Rowling is now richer that the Queen of England.
  
  
• The show is going on. Yeap. Both Celine and Harry haven't told their last word yet. Celine Dion and her management have just confirmed that they will be extending her Las Vegas Show through 2007. While Harry's story hasn't reached the end either.

Dance Critique in Berlin

Check out tanzpresse.de for indpendent critique of the Contemporary Dance scene in Berlin. It features writing about the smaller shows that don't make it into the Deutsche Zeitung. It debuted in 2007, and at present is in German, however, it is planning to cover international performances in the very near future.

Eleonora Ilia

Eleanor (left in picture) attended dance school in Greece, and at the same time under took a diploma in Law. She has recently moved to Berlin and in between taking German language and dance classes is choreographing a Greek theatrical production. This will be performed at the Rathaus Stiegliz on the 24 and 25 May. In Greece she has worked with the Greek National Opera and other independent choreographers.

Alone

11 May 2008
Location: Lambrini's apartment
Featuring: Lambrini Litsa, Eleonora Ilia and Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Shadow Of Love

11 May 2008
Location: Tanz Fabrik, Berlin
Featuring: Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

Jessica lives in Sweden at present, she moved there for love. She studied dance at University in Australia. Most recently she was the personal assistant to three Directors at the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers in London. She thoroughly enjoys corporate employment, and has worked in the fields of film, finance and management consultancy. She is flying to Los Angeles in June to write a film script. Her other on-line projects include investigations into the film Dirty Dancing, the diva Mariah Carey and with the Swedish International Performance Exchange (INPEX) the INPEX DIY Video Festival. She began travelling to Europe to dance in 2000 and finally moved to London to work in 2005. The only performance work she ended up doing there was Let’s Talk About Love. In Berlin she has worked a fair amount with Australian Paul Gazzola.

Jamie Lidell - New Me

Mari Flønes

Mari lives between Paris, Stavanger and Trondheim. Her boyfriend is an architect and they intend to collaborate to create performance works. In addition to this Mari tries to unite the artistic environment in Trondheim by holding frequent improvisation jams through VIB - Verksted for Improvisert Bevegelse (you can join the Facebook group). The city of Trondheim owns an apartment near Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin which it offers to its residents as a stipendium. Mari is in Berlin for one month taking classes and seeing and doing as many things as possible. See her MySpace, it's very beautiful. Rosalind is a member of the Let's Talk About Love cast in Berlin.

Rosalind Goldberg

Rosalind began her dance career performing original Isadora Duncan choreographies with Lilla Baletten which then became the Isadorabelles, and then later the D Company. She completed her professional training at the Stockholm Balettakademien and moved to Berlin in October 2007. She performs with a Swedish choreographer in Sweden and tours her own performance works to Copenhagen, Denmark. Rosalind is a member of the Let's Talk About Love cast in Berlin.

Lambrini Litsa

Lambrini (right in picture) was born and raised in Athens. She received her dance education in Greece, Austria and Germany and last year she also graduated from the University of Athens, Communication and Media department. She takes a keen interest in dance film. At present she 's living, dancing and having fun in Berlin where she takes care of a spoiled dog and a luxury flat none of which belong to her. She recently popped her shoulder from the socket, but even this cant stop her. She is visiting her parents and friends in Greece so cannot make the performance but features in several videos.

Melissa Maldonado

Melissa comes from a Puerto Rican heritage, but grew up in Queens, New York. As a child she took ballet and tap dance with Miss Gloria, but always envied older girls who got to take the flamenco classes. Whilst studying at Colombia University in New York (originally she studied Engineering, later switching major's to Art History) she took many dance classes and surprisingly was re-united with Miss Gloria, finally having the opportunity to learn Classical Spanish Dance. She now teaches Flamenco and other dance styles at a new-style multi-lingual school in Berlin, where she has lived since 2000. It has taken her six years to obtain her Niederlassungerlaubnis and now she is able to stay in Berlin and work in any field she chooses. Melissa is a member of the Let's Talk About Love cast in Berlin. See her website.

London, Let's Talk About Love

See the first part of the performance of Let's Talk About Love in London at The Place theatre here. Read the press here.

Celine On Tour

Celine's tour schedule
Celine's backstage demand

(Me disguised as a fan.) Seeing her in concert was just one prospect that I couldn't pass up. After all it would be a little sloppy/negligent from a work-perspective if I by-passed the opportunity.

New Purchases On Ebay

I bought this today on Ebay.

Hating Céline is therefore not just an aesthetic choice, but an ethical one, a way to elevate yourself above her fans—who, according to market research, tend to be disproportionately poor adult women living in flyover states and shopping at big-box stores.

Rehearsal Schedule for Performance in Berlin

LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE : INFORMATION FOR DANCERS

JESSYKA WATSON-GALBRAITH
Australian choreographer living in Stockholm.
jessyka_wg@yahoo.co.uk
Berlin telephone : 0152 24045252

BLOG FOR PROJECT
http://www.letstalkaboutloveproject.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/jessykabarbara

DINNER
19:00 – Tuesday 13 May – Torstrasse (near Rosenthaler Platz)

REHEARSALS

12:00 – 15:00 Wednesday 14 May Tanz Fabrik, Moeckernstr. 68, Berlin
12:00 – 15:00 Tuesday 20 May Tanz Fabrik, Moeckernstr. 68, Berlin
16:00 – 20:00 Thursday 22 May fabrik Potsdam
16:00 – 20:00 Friday 23 May fabrik Potsdam

PERFORMANCE – SUNDAY 25 MAY – FABRIK POTSDAM
TIME TBC Technical rehearsal
18:00 Closing night of the fabrik Potsdam Tanztage Festival

FABRIK POTSDAM
http://www.fabrikpotsdam.de
Schiffbauergasse 10 D-14467 Potsdam
Telephone : 0331 280 0314

CONTACT : Ulrike Melzweg
residenzen@fabrikpotsdam.de

DIRECTIONS TO POTSDAM

Take S7 or 7 to the last stop Potsdam Hauptbahnhof – from Alexanderplatz/Friedrichstrasse
Then take tram 93/94/99 to the stop HOLZMARKTSTRASSE
http://www.fahrinfo-berlin.de (FAHRPLANSKUNFT)

See also http://www.schiffbauergasse.de for more info about the area.

Free Water Via SMS

Vitamin Water is doing a campaign in the USA, where you sms a certain number and they give you coupons to get free water jam-packed with vitamins. I think I might do this for the performance on the 25th May in Potsdam. Sms me your email address on my German mobile +49 (0)1522 404 5252 and I will arrange a ticket for you.

Read more about free water here.

Fans - Hello Kitty Hell

This is almost as nuts as the Dolly Parton documentary DOLLYWOOD. I have no attraction to the world of Hello Kitty but this level of geekdom is hilarious. The time/effort that goes into being a fan. Is awesome. I am a big fan of fans. This blog is a site that chronicles the extensive range of Hello Kitty paraphernalia, the twist is that the writer vehemently hates it all. Read more about the Hello Kitty Power Sander here.

Paparrazzi For All

"It could be a horrible, invasive thing, like a stalker," Glover told Newsday recently. "But instead he is capturing you as you are."

In a weird twist people actually pay for themselves to be stalked and photographed by paparazzi. Hopefully this means the end of family portraits in studio's with anthroposophical shades of blue as a backdrop. They still haunt me.

Read the full article here.

Twittering Oneself Out Of Prison

Twitter let's you let the world know what you are doing and thinking whenever you want in 140 characters or less. Or as they say officially a social networking and microblogging service utilising instant messaging, SMS or a web interface.

I have been dabbling with it and unlike the millions of teenagers/geeks out there I don't actually have a network of 'friends' who I can follow - but it has been really useful and more instantaneous way of tapping into the information flow surrounding topics that I am interested in. Mostly by following writers of certain blogs that I read.

If you want to know more read this. This was written by a lady who got engaged via Twitter.

But here is a slightly more hard core use of this communication tool. A Californian student who was covering an anti-government protest in Egypt was arrested. On the way to prison in the car, he twittered 'Arrested.' Within 24 hours he was free, his network of followers on the web had been able to contact the right people. It's quite a remarkable example of the potential of this real-time communication. How the student was able to not just contact one person, but a whole network of supporters via the web with simply one word, and divert a dangerous situation.

Read the whole story here. It's mad.

Friskis & Svettis

Friskis & Svettis evolved from an idea about connecting the world of sports and medicine and how they could make use of each others knowledge. Friskis & Svettis wanted to build a bridge, linking medical care and health care closer together.

Friskis stood for one part of the what the movement was about, Svettis for another. Friskis meant adapted activities for those who for one reason or another, couldn´t partake in the ordinary workouts. Svettis was the workouts for everyone else. But the "&" sign was the most important, as it represented the aim of furthering people from Friskis to Svettis. Everyone should be able to find a form of exercise that suited them, whether you had been injured, were fit, unfit, young or old.

Friskis & Svettis is a Swedish chain of public gym's with a Socialist edge. It's not-for-profit (!?) and, one may find themselves doing aerobics to Celine Dion with around 50 other people. The choreography in their jympa classes is astounding, sort of Pagan ritual cross Kylie Minogue Locomotion. Getting fresh and sweaty to Celine. This is the choreography of the people.

Perhaps you may have noticed a little influence in the latest video's for Berlin Let's Talk About Love.