Dance is ‘in my blood’
Fifty years after a teenage Lynn Gilbert taught her first dance lessons, she was emotional to receive a Queen’s Service Medal.
Now called Lynn GilbertSmith, she was awarded the QSM in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to dance education.
‘‘I felt so privileged and honoured,’’ she said.
She said it’s the ‘‘love and the passion’’ for dance that keeps her coming back, year after year.
‘‘It’s in my blood. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever retire.
‘‘I’m not as active in the floor now as I used to be of course, but I still have a good eye for dance and I love teaching. I love the children.
‘‘Life wouldn’t be the same without dance.’’
Gilbert-Smith was just 16 when she founded the Lynn Gilbert Dance Studio, now LGS Dance.
She went to a little church hall in Fitzroy with her ‘‘tiny little reel-to-reel tape recorder’’ and started teaching about 12 students.
Now, LGS Dance has 280 students.
‘‘I’ve got a lot of second generation dancers. They’re just so much like their mothers.’’
Gilbert-Smith has been a committee member of the New Plymouth Competitions Society for the past 30 years, an examiner and adjudicator for national competitions and examinations, and a choreographer for the New Plymouth Operatic Society.
She established the GilbertSmith Trust in 1987, with the goal of raising funds to assist dance students to progress their skills and achieve their goals.
Her students have gone on to multiple successes, including the studio’s dancers winning three national titles in a row from 2009-11.
In 1990, Gilbert-Smith formed the 90FM Cheerleaders, and she said she had two goals for the team.
‘‘Take the squad to Eden Park and win the Ranfurly Shield. And I did both of those in 1997, on one day.’’
Gilbert-Smith said she couldn’t have done her ‘‘crazy ideas’’ without the support of husband Graeme Smith, her sister and a couple of close friends.