Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Swedish Press

Article in the Swedish Aftonbladet. English translation of part of the article is below:



She comes from a family of fourteen, and still her class journey hasn't given her any authenticity points. No one embodies bad taste as she does. Therefore it is only logical that two current projects, a book and a dance piece, makes precisely Celine Dion the protagonist in an analysis of concepts of taste in our present times.

Celine Dion does Esperanto Muzak. Her sexless power ballads, belonging to a tradition of European sleaze rather than american R'n'B, are recorded in all possible languages in order to achieve the deepest possible market penetration. The lyrics, as if straight out of a self-help book- are affirmative and falsely comforting. Love comes to those who believe it. Life is about attitude. Think right and good things will come your way. On stage she is slightly fidgety, making clown like gestures and secret signs to her manager and husband Rene Angelil, who allegedly gambled away all her millions on casinos.

Some of these movements have been picked up by choreographer Jessyka Watson-Galbraith who is behind a dance project called "Let's Talk About Love". When Jessyka Watson-Galbraith decided to create a consciously bad, and really cheesey piece, the choice of soundtrack was obvious: Celine Dion. Together with dancers from all over the world she has produced an on-line performance, a dance mass-movement of home recorded videos that are uploaded on YouTube. The project has been presented on stage on two different occasions, most recently as the closing performance for the Tanztage Festival in Potsdam. In the videos the dancing is solely to Celine Dion and the movements is of the spastic, sweeping and dramatic sort that we do at home when no one is watching, a dance equivalence to singing in the shower.

"Let's Talk About Love" is as much about exploring the choreography of the people as it about creating a work that plays with the conventions of the contemporary dance scene, at the same time an ironic and declaration of love to Celine Dion. Jessyka Watson-Galbraith is not only deeply fascinated by Dion as a person, she has also started to appreciate some of her songs.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Potsdam Press

Let's talk about love Tanztage Festival-Finale mit einem Abend der "Kurzen Stücke," der fest in weiblicher Hand ist

Tuesday 27 May, 2008
excerpt from article printed in the Märkische Allgemeine, Potsdamer Stadtkurier

The young Australian Jessyka Watson Galbraith rehearsed her choreography "Let's talk about love" with 22 dancers from Berlin and Potsdam bit by bit in their apartments or on open road and then put it together in a few rehearsals. Between stove and bed, in parking spots, on house tops. Videospots (www.letstalkaboutloveproject.blogspot.com) show how daily dance ducks its head under droops or tries to evade dinner tables - accompanied by corny ballads about love. Although Watson Galbraith' role is not really clear yet and she sometimes seems to be the gymnast instructor of her 15 fellow combatants: The project skilfully utilizes shameless wallowing in the glamour pop of Celine Dion to measure the banal in the big emotion, the kitsch in the everyday, the theatre in the living room. One will surely hear again from this Love-Guerilla.

Constanze Klementz

(translation from German, Ulrike Melzwig)

Saturday, May 31, 2008

PICTURES OF THE PROJECT

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

Friday, May 30, 2008

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

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

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

Saturday, May 24, 2008

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.