Third Coast Review’s Kathy D. Hey offers her impressions of South Chicago Dance Theatre’s recent Lamentations of Peace, which premiered at the Dance Center in early December 2025.

South Chicago Dance Theatre (SCDT) is in season 9 and continues to dance close to the edge. Founder Kia S. Smith choreographed Lamentations of Peace with a narrative of the emotions that arise during the Christmas season in a world premiere at the Columbia College Dance Center. In Lamentations for Peace, we are introduced to a typical American family: Mom (Mya Bryant), Dad (Jack Halbert), Adult Son (Brodie Wolf), and Young Brodie (Peter Westergaard). The mother and father are going through a crisis in their marriage, but put on a happy front at a holiday party of friends and their children.

Like almost everyone I have ever known, I have found that holidays can be a goldmine or a landmine. Advertising and consumerism have made the Christmas holidays a matter of forced joy, and even worse, forced relationships, despite the state of the world.

“The movements flow but have a deliberate, abrupt quality that I interpreted as different emotional states. Halbert and Bryant are exquisite as a unit in sync and as a couple falling apart. Lamentations for Peace feels like an expressionist sculpture being built rather than a flowing watercolor.”

— Kathy D. Hey for Third Coast Review

Wolf as Adult Son is phenomenal. The character is damaged from childhood events and may have a substance abuse problem. Smith's choreography suggests that Adult Son is mired in the past and left bare and shivering in the face of his life's issues. It contrasts with Young Brodie being lovingly covered with a blanket, only for Dad to leave. I could feel the pull and tension in my own body, watching Wolf move as though literally stuck on a glue trap. I am always amazed at the skill and body control that dancers have. Lamentations for Peace showcases the discipline and talent evident in SCDT….