Dance Center Artistic Director Meredith Sutton sat down with South Chicago Dance Theatre’s Founder, Director of Vision and Strategy, and Resident Choreographer Kia S. Smith this past summer to talk about how she was approaching the process of creating the company’s first holiday show.
Meredith Sutton: I want to dive right in! Can you talk about what your process has been or what it will continue to evolve into in the development of this holiday work: Lamentations for Peace?
Kia S. Smith: The first thing that I thought of is, how do I make the Dance Center a holiday spectacle? I just had a brainstorming: what is it about spectacles that I enjoy? What is it about the holidays I like? And started putting together the wall. I have to look at it to tell you…
Meredith: Go to the wall of process and inspiration!
Kia: I have four main posts. One is narrative approach, the other is set, the other is the Book of Lamentations, and the other is sound/characters. The narrative approach, I just have a ton of different things written down. Terra [Schultz, SCDT Managing Director] said yesterday and it stayed with me: “a peaceful getaway for our souls for the tumultuous time.” I wrote that down because I got this image of the dancers and I wrote, “the holiday I wanted to have as a child.” I'm always using my own life memories or ideas or hopes and then projecting it on stage in a bigger way.
I always have a narrative that follows some person’s journey, at least so far in bigger works. I had this idea: a fallen man and something that happened to him as a child, something inside of him begins to unravel, and we see him as a child and we see him as a man and we see him maybe journey through these landscapes. I don't know what they are yet. I don't even know if I'm going with this narrative. This is just what I was thinking about yesterday.
image: courtesy of South Chicago Dance Theatre, photo by by MReid Photography.
I was trying to figure out: what is the journey? For Memoirs of Jazz in the Alley [SCDT’s first evening length work that premiered in 2023 at the Auditorium Theatre] the different landscapes were based on color. For Lamentations, what could be the thing that helps ground me in the process?
At least at the moment – I feel strongest about is the journey being through different emotions. I’m leaning towards that – like pain, hardship, loss, loneliness, light, hope, resolution, funny or reprieve, darkness, danger, fallen and then joy/celebration. Once I narrow down the emotional journey that I want it to be, I'll be able to figure out the sound and the other aspects like set pieces and that will help me start to create phrases and sections.
In my last two big works [Memoirs of Jazz in the Alley and IN/WITHIN], each one had a moment that made us care about the person but then also helped us see them transform in some way. And I realize that I can't choose that. It has to choose itself from the process so I'm not going to try to figure that part out. I'm going to figure out the other stuff and that part will come.
Meredith: It certainly will. It seems as if this work has the opportunity to be a balm for us at such a meaningful time of the year, whether that's celebration, whether that's grief and processing, whether that's joy, whether that's acknowledgement or preparing to start anew. I'm excited about what's going to unfold especially at such a magical and dually precarious time of year. I appreciate that it's setting the stage to investigate all of the facets of what goes on during that time.
Kia: I was talking to my mentor yesterday and she was like, Kia, it's OK that you don't have the answers yet. My goal for this piece though is that people see themselves in it, and that gives us the opportunity to enjoy the holiday season. I think there's a lot of ups and downs in this work, but I want anyone to be able to enjoy this show and also to understand that we all journey through the holidays in different ways.
Meredith: When we entered into partnering with you on this inaugural holiday show for the company, you already had the title – Lamentations for Peace. What is it about those words put together, especially as you're going through the unpredictable journey of this process?
Kia: For one it's broad, it gives me space. You don't exactly know what it is from the title. But I also like those two words – lamentations and peace – because lamenting has a feeling of sorrow or sadness or grief. But peace is hope and stillness and quiet. I like the difference between those two words.
“When you leave the theater, you [will] feel like you were laughing with the person next to you or the person on the other side was humming the same songs as you. I want people walking away from the Dance Center feeling more connected to each other.”
Meredith: In terms of movement vocabulary that's going to be developed over time, do you anticipate that it will maybe diverge in some ways from what we can consider to be Kia Smith’s quintessential style?
Kia: I have a quintessential style?!
image: courtesy of South Chicago Dance Theatre, photo by by MReid Photography.
Meredith: For me, in intersecting with your work, there are very clear utilizations of the body to establish a line or formation and then a nuanced breaking away. There’s an architectural building that evolves right in front of your eyes in ways where it’s developing and conjuring as the piece goes on. Are you anticipating what the movement will be dynamically or kinesthetically in terms of how it’s exchanged with the audience?
Kia: I love music just as much as I love moving so think that the music will help me to decide what the movement is going to be. I think the music will change as the show progresses, but I want to make sure that it's free to be whatever it wants to be.
Meredith: When you think about the dynamic and growing rep of the company, how does Lamentations for Peace fit and play and intersect with what the company has already?
Kia: It's our third big work. I'm leaning more towards making bigger, evening-length and more production-type works and commissioning repertoire for multi-choreographer performances. Lamentations for Peace lives in the larger production bucket.
image: courtesy of South Chicago Dance Theatre, photo by by MReid Photography.
Meredith: What do you want audiences to take away from experiencing this holiday work?
Kia: I want families and people in general feeling like, OK, now we can get into the holiday season and we can be excited about it. When you leave the theater, you feel like you were laughing with the person next to you or the person on the other side was humming the same songs as you. I want people walking away from the Dance Center feeling more connected to each other.
Meredith: I love that. Well, thank you so much for sharing these thoughts and the beautiful uncertainty of entering into this process!
Lamentations for Peace premieres at the Dance Center on Saturday and Sunday, December 6 and 7, 2025.
Banner image of Valerie Chen courtesy of South Chicago Dance Theatre, photo by by MReid Photography.
