Friday, September 16 | 9:30-11am
Ballet With Improvisation class with Kia Smith. This is an Advanced level Ballet class that explores improvisation and encourages dancers to employ their individual artistry and movement vocabulary within the context of a Ballet technique class.
About Kia Smith:
A Chicago native, Kia 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.
Kia is the Founder and Executive Artistic Director of the South Chicago Dance Theatre, the company’s Resident Choreographer. 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 Director’s and Choreographers Foundation as a member of the national Observership class. In 2021, Kia received a 3Arts Make A Wave award and was an Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow at the renowned Jacobs Pillow. She is 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, Kia’s recent and upcoming commissions include Madison Ballet (2021), Chicago Repertory Ballet (2022), the Institute For Contemporary Dance at Houston Contemporary Dance Company (2022), Houston Contemporary Dance Company (2022), Chicago Opera Theater (2022), Ruth Page Civic Ballet Training Company (2022), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2022), Giordano Dance Chicago (2023), Western Michigan University (2023) and a new evening length work Memoirs of Jazz in the Alley for South Chicago Dance Theatre premiering at the Auditorium Theater of Chicago (2023).
Join us at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts for Open Technique Classes with the Ruth Page Civic Ballet Training Company*, every other Friday at 9:30am. The class will feature rotating guest artists and Ruth Page School of Dance faculty. Method and technique will vary by teacher.
*The Ruth Page Civic Ballet Training Company is an elite group of pre-professional dancers, ages 17-25 who train daily, 9am-3:30pm, August – June at the Ruth Page School of Dance. The program provides continued comprehensive technique training, unique performance experiences, focused study with guest artists and choreographers, and travel to our International Sister Schools in Cuba, Italy and Spain.
