Conversation between Lesbian Power Duo Karlberg & Laakso and Kerstin Schroth about Heart of the Ocean

Heart of the Ocean is the final part of a trilogy. Could you speak about the starting point and ideas behind the three performances?

The trilogy grew directly out of our desire to build dedicated creative work for the lesbian community, continuing the momentum and space we first cultivated with Lesbo Erotics – The Garden Party, a series of performative garden parties. The events contained pop-up performances but were also very participatory in a way where the audience was an essential part in moulding the atmosphere and dramaturgy. From that starting point, we wanted to continue the work by making stage performances while maintaining that communal and interactive feel.

By taking iconic, epic (hetero)normative love stories and films that we genuinely love and reinterpreting them through an unapologetically lesbian lens, we found a playful yet profound way to create optional narratives through a practice we like to call lesbian translation.

At its core, the trilogy lives at the intersection of entertainment and contemporary performance, balancing theatrical exaggeration with nuanced portrayals of lesbian relationships. Culminating in Heart of the Ocean, the three performances trace an evolving arc of lesbian longing and love. By translating these grand pop-culture references into our own artistic language, we want to offer our community both the joy of familiar storytelling and a reflective space where our real lives, passions, and relationships take centre stage.

In this trilogy, and this third part premiering in Moving in November, you are specifically working with the format of a musical. Could you share with us more about this artistic choice?

Choosing the musical format allowed us to play with a vibrant, contemporary take on the genre—one that opens up multiple registers for expression, from pop culture references to deeply intimate moments. From the very beginning, our aim has been to make performances for an audience. While our work is process based, those processes are completely steered by our desire to put on a show. Throughout our rehearsal period, we constantly consider different ways to build a performance, blending commonly recognizable pop culture tropes with uniquely lesbian-recognizable and personal points of view.

Ultimately, working with the musical is an intentional piece of audience outreach and engagement, especially within the landscape of contemporary dance. Musicals inherently speak to the masses, offering us a generous, high-energy vessel to connect with both returning lovers of dance and entirely new audiences at Moving in November. By leaning into the direct engagement of a musical and the sensuous quality of contemporary dance, we want to create an experience that invites the audience into our world while keeping lesbian representation, humour, and heart right at the core.

Recently, we have been inspired by and resonating with a quote from the late queer icon Tim Curry, saying “There’s nothing more daunting than a musical, but there’s also no more direct line to joy.”

You are signing the trilogy as Lesbian Power Duo, not as Johanna Karlberg and Iiris Laakso. Why?

The name Lesbian Power Duo actually originated after our first demo showing at UrbanApa x Stoa in 2024, when a dear colleague remarked that we were a “true power duo” and actually, we agree. So, we jokingly adopted it, playing on the concepts of a power lesbian and a power duo. Above all, the title reflects how we operate: The performance isn’t born from two separate people bringing standalone ideas to the table, but directly from our chemistry, relationality, and dynamic together. We truly try to focus on the work itself rather than us as individuals.

For this work, we have made the decision to add our full names alongside it. As much as we prioritize collective relationality, this field unfortunately relies heavily on personal connections and name recognition. Adding our names allows us to navigate the professional realities of the art world while keeping the heart of our collaborative identity front and centre. So, we are trying this signature on – next time we might try something else.