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.