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] He also appeared as a contemporary dancer with the Desrosiers Dance Theatre at the Calgary Olympic Arts Festival in 1988.[9] His decade-long stage partnership with ballerina Veronica Tennant was particularly admired by critics.[10][11][12][13][14][2]

Smith retired from the stage in May 1995, following a performance as one of the Stepsisters[15] in Ben Stevenson's Cinderella.[2] He subsequently worked as a ballet master for Ontario Ballet Theatre,[16] Ballet BC[17] and BalletMet.[18] Since 2004 he has been on the faculty of Canada's National Ballet School.[19][20]

Smith's repertoire included La Sylphide (James), Napoli (Gennaro),[21] Giselle (Count Albrecht),[22] Coppélia (Franz),[23] Swan Lake (Prince),[24][25] The Sleeping Beauty (Prince Florimund,[10][26] Bluebird[27]), Celia Franca's production of The Nutcracker (Prince),[28] Don Quixote (Basilio),[11][29] the third act of Raymonda (Jean de Brienne),[30] Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides[7] and Le Spectre de la rose,[7] Frederick Ashton's Romeo and Juliet (Romeo, Mercutio[31]), La Fille mal gardée (Colas)[32] and The Two Pigeons (Young Man),[33] John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet (Romeo),[34][13][35] Onegin (Lensky,[36] Onegin[12][37][38][39]) and The Taming of the Shrew (Lucentio),[40][41][42] Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow (Camille de Rosillon;[43][44][45] a role filmed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation[46]), George Balanchine's Serenade, Concerto Barocco,[47] The Four Temperaments (Melancholic,[48] Sanguinic[49]) and Symphony in C (third movement),[50] Kenneth MacMillan's Elite Syncopations, Song of the Earth (the Man)[51] and Concerto,[52] Glen Tetley's Sphinx (Oedipus),[53] Alice (White Rabbit),[54][55] La Ronde (the Count)[56][57] and Tagore,[58] Maurice Béjart's Song of a Wayfarer,[59] Harald Lander's Etudes,[60] Anne Ditchburn's Mad Shadows (Patrice; a role filmed by the CBC[61]), Robert Desrosiers' Blue Snake (filmed by the National Film Board of Canada[62]) and several ballets created by James Kudelka[63][64][2] and John Alleyne.[65][66]