Caro Ruoff and Steef Kersbergen

Caro Ruoff and Steef Kersbergen are a Netherlands-based performance art duo who create intimate and thought-provoking works that explore themes of queer and trans* identity and transformation. Their work poetically merges Caro’s expertise in playwriting and rhythmic, multi-lingual text with Steef’s focus on durational performance, alternative image-making, and performance-based film. Together they aim to challenge audiences to engage with the complexities of identity, the process of becoming, and the power of shared vulnerability.

All there is left to do

We wait. I wait, you wait with me, and I wait with you. Until the morning comes, until the law changes, until your voice drops, until the doctors allow you to grow into yourself, until we can go swimming, until you can smile into a mirror.

And still we wait.

This intimate performance art piece explores the journey of a nonbinary gender transition, shared from the perspectives of the person transitioning and their partner. Performed by real-life partners navigating this transformative experience (and the waiting that comes with it) the work delves into themes of longing for change, identity, grief, and celebration.

Through a poetic interplay of live action, voice-over, and projections, the performance invites the audience to join the pair in saying goodbye, in imagining change, and in waiting for it to happen. Mixing what has been, what might come and what is, creating a space filled with anticipation, frustration, and hope.

While this performances originated from the personal journey of gender transition, All there is left to do reaches beyond the queer experience to touch on the difficult truth of waiting for change. By focussing on this specific struggle in the transgender experience, the piece serves as a reminder that while the journey of becoming is deeply personal, the act of waiting alongside someone is a radical expression of love, hope, and solidarity.

And sometimes, waiting is all there is left to do.