Lois Smith

Who was Lois Smith?

Lois Irene Smith was a Canadian ballet dancer and dance teacher.

Smith was born in Vancouver in 1929. She began her dance training at the British Columbia School of Ballet, and later studied with Rosemary Deveson and Mara McBirney in Vancouver. She married fellow dancer David Adams in 1950. The couple had one daughter, Janine, and separated during the 1960s.

In 1951, she joined the National Ballet of Canada as the company's initial prima ballerina. Following an injury, she left the National Ballet to form her own dance school in 1969.

She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada on 23 June 1980 and invested in October 1980.

Smith died at Sechelt, British Columbia in 2011, aged 81, following a lengthy illness. She had one daughter, Janine, with Adams.