| Maker | Cat Smits |
| Duration | 60 min |
| Part of | The Women We Fear |
What’s left when you no longer feel the need to squeeze yourself into a desired shape?
Klein Verzet is a performance by Cat Smits about aging with presence. Known for her puppetry and handmade foam sculptures, Cat explores what emerges when the male gaze slips away from a woman. That space can feel lonely, but it can also be filled with joyful defiance.
Two women meet in that liberated space. They share memories and imagine how life might have looked had they known all of this at twenty. Suddenly, the possibilities seem endless. But when you step outside the social dance, you eventually come face to face with another partner. Death joins the dance too, sometimes funny, sometimes unforgiving.
One day
he no longer looks
you no longer look
not because you're invisible
but because you finally
are
two women
one remembers
the other invents
or the other way around
they could have danced
at seventeen
said no at twenty
now it no longer fits inside them
and that is freedom
the table for two
a third plate
slightly shifted
they know
and still they pour
quiet defiance
don’t ask.
Cat Smits studied musicology and earned a Bachelor of Arts at the Amsterdam School of the Arts. She specialized in puppetry at l’École internationale de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières. With Stichting Cat Smits Company, she creates physical, visual theater and film productions.
She also creates foam sculptures that appear both in her own work and in productions by other companies. Her work has been shown in countries such as Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Iceland. Her sculptures have also appeared in productions by Duda Paiva Company, Cezanne Tegelberg & Co, De Grote Haay, and De Witte Pomp.
Direction & puppetry: Cat Smits
Performers: Urmie Plein, Martine van Ditzhuyzen
Text & poetry: Nafiss Nia
Photography: Studio Matusiak | Eddy Wenting Photography
With The Women We Fear, we spend two weeks exploring how powerful and wise women throughout history can be seen for what they truly are: essential. We Fear.
Korzo Studio