Remembering Nadia Potts

nadia Potts

(1948 – 2026)

It is with a heavy heart that I inform the friends of DCD that long-time board member Nadia Potts died earlier this morning with the assistance of a MAID procedure after a long battle with cancer. 

Nadia served on DCD’s board of directors since 2009 and was a stalwart member of the board and a champion of the work DCD does. Of course, long before that, she was best known to Canadians as a dancer with The National Ballet of Canada from 1966 to 1986, dancing as a principal from 1969. 

After arriving in Canada from England in the 1950s, Nadia trained with Betty Oliphant and then at the newly formed National Ballet School. She shared a love of ballet with her father who started attending National Ballet performances not long after the family arrived in Canada. Nadia’s mother, Lucy Potts, was a long-time teacher at the National Ballet School and also held the role of academic principal at one point. 

As a ballerina, Nadia toured extensively, both with the National Ballet and as a guest artist throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. She was partnered by many of the most renowned dancers of her time including Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn, Peter Martins, Anthony Dowell, Fernando Bujones, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, who chose her to dance with him in Erik Bruhn’s Swan Lake in his National Ballet of Canada debut.

After her retirement from the stage, Nadia launched into a teaching career that would last for more than 25 years. She became director of the dance program at Ryerson Polytechnic (later Ryerson University and then Toronto Metropolitan University) in 1989. Under Nadia’s leadership, a program that had originated to develop dance teachers, was transformed into a performance training program producing graduates who can be found on stages around the world. Nadia received a GREET teaching Award from Ryerson and in 2014 was honoured with Dance Ontario’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She was inducted into the Dance Collection Danse Hall of Fame in 2024.

For DCD’s staff and board members, we have lost a friend and a great supporter. When both Nadia and former National Ballet General Manager Bob Johnston were on the board, most meetings would begin with humorous anecdotes from their careers and plenty of laughter. I will remember Nadia’s sense of humour and her laugh fondly. For me personally, she was my first Sugar Plum Fairy when my mother drove the two hours to Toronto to take me to The Nutcracker when I was just 7 years old – a newly minted ballet student. When I was a teenager and on the verge of further training at York University, I took a master class from Nadia when she came to London, Ontario – I was thrilled to receive a correction from her and was in awe of how she moved and taught. In fall 2006, we began the layout of her book Betty Oliphant: The Artistry of Teaching and soon began joking about the book’s absolute deadline as I was expecting a baby in late May – the book launched about two weeks before my due date. I loved her stories and tips on navigating a career and motherhood. She was part of a generation of women who made dancing after childbirth the norm, not the exception. That winter that I was pregnant, Nadia also gave me a job teaching dance history at Ryerson – a role I continue to relish each winter.

On January 29, on my way to Vancouver to launch DCD’s latest book, I called Nadia from the airport to say my goodbyes. She was as lovely as ever. Chipper and laughing as she told me about how organized the MAID system seemed to be and then thanking me for my work looking after DCD, for making her book, for teaching dance history to new generations. It was almost hard to get a word in to thank her for all her contributions to dance, with every stage she has graced, every student she has taught, every life she has made better through her presence, her generosity, her humour, and her passion for dance. Nadia, you leave an inspired legacy and we will miss you.

~ Amy Bowring, Executive & Curatorial Director