Karin Melin and Aude Martos met four years ago for the first time, right after they had both graduated. They both practice a quite uncommon circus skill called Washington, where you stand on your head in a trapeze.
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Above is a short sequence of what Karin and Aude tried during their residency here in Subtopia. Karin, who is upside down in the clip, says that there was an instant connection between her and Aude when they first met. Though, it is not until this residence week that they have really gotten to know each other.
– From the start we were planning on doing a cabaret act, but we realised that that wasn’t for us. We work in a whole different way. Not at all as strictly as the cabaret format. We haven’t really had any common theme, but created based on improvisation and we have gathered a lot of material. If we would have shown everything it would have taken an hour, Karin says.
The purpose of the residency has been to examine and try material and at the end of the week they presented a 20 minutes Work in Progress show. It was made up of five different scenes and one person from the audience got to decide what would be presented by randomly picking a small note, out of several, from a bowl.
The absurd humor which permeated the entire presentation was much appreciated by the audience. One particularly popular situation was that of a daft bird-watching where Aude is dressed up as a “posh but clumsy bird”, as one member of the audience described it afterwards.
– We were originally going to do a butterfly, but we couldn’t find any wings, so we got to borrow a costume from Cirkus Cirkör and that was when the bird started to form. But the high heels and bird-movements made me feel almost like Beyoncé, Aude says jokingly.
Karin tells that she really likes the way in which she and Aude have been working during this residency and that they will continue in the same style in the future to develop what they have started here in Subtopia. The working title for the duo right now is Karma, and we look forward to seeing what will come from their labour.