When former principal dancer Nadia Potts taught ballet at Ryerson Polytechnic University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), she would lift her leg to the side at 90 degrees and hold it there, unwavering, for the entire length of her explanation. Arms crossed, a twinkle in her eye, she’d glance at it, joke that she must have forgotten it there, and lower it with control.
Then she would ask her students, “What’s your story?” She demanded that her dancers be more than just bodies holding shapes; she dared them to bring their lived experiences onto the stage.
Ms. Potts commanded the same attention in Ryerson’s dance studios that she once held onstage during her two decades with the National Ballet of Canada. She became a tireless champion of her students’ work, says Justine Chambers, a choreographer and dance professor who studied under Ms. Potts in the 1990s.
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“She was demanding. Nothing came sugar-coated,” Ms. Chambers says. “But she pushed us because she was determined to help us rise to our own greatness.”
Ms. Potts had a medically assisted death on Feb. 2 at North York General Hospital. She was 77. She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2022.
As a performer, Ms. Potts was admired for what one review called the world’s best arabesque. In 1975, when she debuted as Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, The New York Times praised her as “one of Canada’s developing and already distinctive ballerinas,” noting her tremulous vulnerability, eloquent line and deeply felt portrayal – qualities that defined her style and musicality.
Later as a teacher, she had a natural eye for budding potential. Camille Stopps, now a professional actor, model and dancer, recalls auditioning for Ryerson’s dance program. Ms. Potts encouraged her to try again the following year if she wasn’t accepted. The school rejected Ms. Stopps, but she indeed returned a year later to audition again. This time, Ms. Potts studied her closely with her signature sparkle in her eye. Recognizing a familiar affinity for hard work, she granted Ms. Stopps admission.
“I think Nadia recognized our shared love of dance, performance and willingness to lay it all on the line,” Ms. Stopps says. “She knew how to nurture that instinct and push her students toward their dreams.” After working closely with Ms. Potts for the duration of the program, Ms. Stopps went on to receive a scholarship for excellence in her craft.
Rehearsal with Ms. Potts demanded patience and precision. With her usual effortless mien – and wearing a floor-length chiffon skirt and long-sleeved bodysuit that sprouted a long neck, short ponytail and always, without fail, earrings – she worked beside dancers rather than directing from the front of the room.
“She danced with us,” Ms. Chambers says. “She mirrored us so we could feel the same thing together.” Once, they spent more than three hours refining the opening 20 seconds of a piece. “I’d take the first inhale and we’d stop; I’d lift my fingertips and she’d say, ‘No – try again.’ We worked in the nanoseconds. It attuned me to every cell in my body.”
Ms. Potts was born in London, England, on April 20, 1948. When she was 4, she immigrated to Canada with her parents, Lucy and Robert Potts, and her brother, Alexander. The Pottses wanted both children to attend private schools, and their money would go further in Canada. They settled first in a rental apartment before building a house in suburban North York (now part of Toronto).
After expressing interest in ballet at the age of 7, Ms. Potts was introduced to the legendary ballet mistress Betty Oliphant, starting weekly lessons in Ms. Oliphant’s home studio. When Ms. Oliphant opened the National Ballet School alongside Celia Franca in 1959, Nadia enrolled full-time.
Lucy was a serious intellectual with a penchant for languages; Robert, who ran a wood-importing business, was her lighthearted counterpart. Wanting to formalize her expertise, Lucy earned a French degree at the University of Toronto, later becoming the ballet school’s French teacher then academic principal. Nadia’s brother, Alexander Potts, remembers dreading report-card season, but knew his tenacity would lead to summers canoeing around the family’s cottage on Catchacoma Lake, in Ontario’s Kawartha Highlands.
Nadia inherited her mother’s drive and pragmatism, but she was especially close to her father, sharing his wry humour and gift for storytelling. When she was 16, Robert, a heavy smoker, went to the hospital for a neck ache and left with a lung cancer diagnosis. He died seven months later. The loss haunted the family, leaving a lasting mark on each of them. Lucy devoted herself to her work and to her children’s success, never remarrying.
At 18, Nadia joined the National Ballet of Canada. Early in her tenure, she was cast as Cinderella – despite never having danced a principal role. Shortly before a run of Ms. Franca’s The Nutcracker, Nadia was asked to perform the Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen in select performances as a test run. After a pivotal rehearsal, Ms. Franca pronounced, “I think we have a ballerina on our hands.” By 21, Ms. Potts was promoted to principal dancer.
When Rudolf Nureyev mounted a tour of The Sleeping Beauty in North America in 1972, he searched for a partner whose musicality and classical line matched his own. He found his Princess Aurora in Ms. Potts. Their ensuing tour marked a banner year for the National Ballet of Canada, with more than 190 performances of Sleeping Beauty alone.
In the following years, Ms. Potts partnered her era’s most renowned male dancers, including Erik Bruhn, Anthony Dowell and Mikhail Baryshnikov, who asked to dance with her in Swan Lake.
When Harold Gomez, a clarinetist with the National Ballet’s orchestra, met Ms. Potts in the mid-1970s, it was nearly love at first sight. Ms. Potts was in another relationship at the time, but the moment she became available the pair fell for one another. They quietly married at Toronto’s City Hall.
“Nadia loved jewellery,” recalls Linda Alguire, a former first soloist and lifelong friend. “One day she came back from lunch wearing a ring, and someone asked if she’d just gotten married. That’s how we found out.”
At a time when dancers often had to choose between motherhood and a career, Ms. Potts opted to have both. In 1979, she made local headlines for attending company class pregnant with her son, Alexander – and followed suit in 1983 while pregnant with her daughter, Natalya.
“If something mattered deeply to my mother, she went after it regardless of the environment’s expectation,” Natalya Gomez says. When the company toured, Ms. Potts and Mr. Gomez took their children with them, folding family life into their work wherever possible.
After 20 years with the company – culminating in a performance of La Fille mal gardée that inspired a roaring ovation – Ms. Potts retired from the stage. Bringing the same ambition to teaching, she joined Ryerson as an instructor then became program director. Under her leadership, the program evolved from a three-year diploma for dance teachers into a competitive, four-year bachelor’s degree for performers.
“Her secret was bringing a great group of [instructors] on staff, then giving them respect, liberty and space to do what they needed,” Ms. Gomez says. “She had high expectations, but she always found a creative way to build her vision.”
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Her influence reshaped Toronto’s dance scene. “She built dancers – and she got them work,” Ms. Chambers says. Ms. Potts invited choreographers into the studio and the audience, ensuring students were seen as serious professionals – not amateurs.
“She knew that a community is an ecosystem that you have to feed, and now what follows her time is a legacy of Toronto performers, choreographers and teachers that all came through her program,” Ms. Chambers says. In 2004, she received Ryerson’s GREET Award, for excellence in teaching.
Ms. Potts made time for family with expansive holiday feasts and enjoying the great outdoors. “She would work like heck during the school year, then when summer came she and my father would take our extended family on months-long camping and hiking trips. She mapped out the drive, making site reservations manually,” Ms. Gomez recalls. “We’d set up tents in the dark or on cliffs – it was pretty daring. It wasn’t what people expected of a ballerina, but she needed to move and be in nature.”
During a sabbatical in the mid-2000s, Ms. Potts began writing Betty Oliphant: The Artistry of Teaching, a series of explained ballet exercises published by Dance Collection Danse (DCD) in 2007. Frustrated with photography-based manuals, which flattened technique into an interpretation on an idealized body, she and DCD’s director of research Amy Bowring used innovative animation software to create inclusive illustrations. Shortly after its publication, Ms. Potts joined the DCD’s board and in 2014 she was awarded the Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2022, Ms. Potts was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and told she would likely live only 18 months longer. She remained buoyant, often consoling others and travelling the country with her husband in their RV. She was invigorated to live life to the fullest, grateful for every month beyond what was expected, according to her brother.
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In 2024, she was inducted into DCD’s Dance Hall of Fame and its archive now includes video interviews of Ms. Potts speaking about her legacy.
Before her death, in her characteristically organized manner, Ms. Potts created a timetable to speak with and thank everyone she loved. “My mother knew everyone had a story to tell,” Ms. Gomez says. “Even if it was simple, she wanted to pull it out and understand it, touching the highest ups and lowest downs – not just in dance but in all areas of her life.”
Ms. Potts leaves her husband, two children and a granddaughter. She also leaves her extended family, friends and a community of dance enthusiasts.
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