Lia Schubert

Lia Schubert (1926–2016) was a dancer, choreographer and instructor who was born into a Jewish family in Vienna. To escape anti-Semitism, the family moved first to Zagreb and in 1938 to Paris where she studied ballet. After narrowly escaping Nazi persecution during World War II, she moved to Malmö, Sweden, in 1950 and to Stockholm in 1953. In 1957, she founded the Ballet Academy at Stockholm University. She moved to Israel in 1968 where together with Caj Lottman she founded the Institute for Dance in Haifa. In the 1980s, she moved back to Sweden where she initiated the Dansteater Thalia in Gothenburg. Suffering from poor health, she retired in 1997 and died two years later at her home in Fåglavik.