Kia, Work in Process
from the Portrait Project
KIA is the third in our ongoing film series with collaborator Jack Flame Sorokin, The Portrait Project, which looks closely at dance artists in different stages of life and career.
KIA profiles Chicago dancemaker, Kia S. Smith, on the cusp of an important premiere in which she crosses a dizzying threshold toward wider success and recognition. We join Kia in the theater in the final rehearsals leading up to opening night, and later, as she reflects on her journey and what it means to have a life in the arts.
More from The Portrait Project
KIA S. SMITH is a Chicago native, trained intensely on scholarship at The Hyde Park School of Dance, The Joel Hall Dance Center, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, StoryCatchers Theatre, and received scholarships to attend the American Dance Festival in 2008 and 2009. She holds a BFA in Dance from Western Michigan University and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she was an Advanced Opportunity Program Fellow. Smith is the Founder and Executive Artistic Director of South Chicago Dance Theatre, the company’s Resident Choreographer and the founder of its signature core programs. In 2018, she received the inaugural Young and Ambitious Entrepreneurship Award from the Metropolitan Board of the Chicago Urban League and was chosen by the New York City based Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation as a member of the national Observership class. In 2021, Smith received a 3Arts Make A Wave award and was an Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow at the renowned Jacobs Pillow. She was a 2022 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Awardee and a participant in the Artist in Residence “AIR” Program at the Cliff Dwellers Chicago. As a freelance choreographer, Smith’s recent and upcoming commissions include Madison Ballet (2021), Chicago Repertory Ballet (2022), Houston Contemporary Dance Company (2023), Chicago Opera Theater (2023), Ruth Page Civic Ballet Training Company (2022), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2023), Giordano Dance Chicago (2023) and Western Michigan University (2023). She was recently included in Chicago Magazine’s “Who’s Got Next” list and named Player of the Moment in the category of Dance for New City Magazine’s annual 50 Players List in 2023. She is grateful to God for giving her the energy, grace and the opportunity to be able to build community through the art of dance.