Raymond Smith (dancer)

Raymond Smith was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and immigrated to Canada at the age of seven.[2] He began dancing lessons in London,[3] Ontario, at the age of 11, and entered Canada's National Ballet School[4] at the age of 12, in the eighth grade. Upon graduating in 1975, he joined the corps de ballet of the National Ballet of Canada,[5] making his professional debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in Coppélia.[2] He was promoted to the rank of second soloist in 1978, to first soloist in 1979, and to principal dancer in 1980.[6][7] During the 1985-86 season, he was a principal dancer with London Festival Ballet.[8] Smith performed as a guest artist at La Scala,[9] with Scottish Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and Royal Winnipeg Ballet.[10] He also appeared as a contemporary dancer with the Desrosiers Dance Theatre at the Calgary Olympic Arts Festival in 1988.[11] His decade-long stage partnership with ballerina Veronica Tennant was particularly admired by critics.[12][13][14][15][16][2]

Smith retired from the stage in May 1995, following a performance as one of the Stepsisters[17] in Ben Stevenson's Cinderella.[2] He subsequently worked as a ballet master for Ontario Ballet Theatre,[18] Ballet BC[10] and BalletMet.[19] Since 2004 he has been on the faculty of Canada's National Ballet School.[20][21][22]

Smith's repertoire included La Sylphide (James), Napoli (Gennaro),[23] Giselle (Count Albrecht),[24] Coppélia (Franz),[25] Swan Lake (Prince),[26][27] The Sleeping Beauty (Prince Florimund,[12][28] Bluebird[29]), Celia Franca's production of The Nutcracker (Prince),[30] Don Quixote (Basilio),[13][31] the third act of Raymonda (Jean de Brienne),[32] Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides[7] and Le Spectre de la rose,[7] Frederick Ashton's Romeo and Juliet (Romeo, Mercutio[33]), La Fille mal gardée (Colas)[34] and The Two Pigeons (Young Man),[35] John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet (Romeo),[36][15][37] Onegin (Lensky,[38] Onegin[14][39][40][41]) and The Taming of the Shrew (Lucentio),[42][43][44] Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow (Camille de Rosillon;[45][46][47] a role filmed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation[48]), George Balanchine's Serenade, Concerto Barocco,[49] The Four Temperaments (Melancholic,[50] Sanguinic[51]) and Symphony in C (third movement),[52] Kenneth MacMillan's Elite Syncopations, Song of the Earth (the Man)[53] and Concerto,[54] Glen Tetley's Sphinx (Oedipus),[55] Alice (White Rabbit),[56][57] La Ronde (the Count)[58][59] and Tagore,[60] Maurice Béjart's Song of a Wayfarer,[61] Harald Lander's Etudes,[62] Anne Ditchburn's Mad Shadows (Patrice; a role filmed by the CBC[63]), Robert Desrosiers' Blue Snake (filmed by the National Film Board of Canada[64]) and several ballets created by James Kudelka[65][66][2] and John Alleyne.[67][68]