Chinese Canadian dance pioneer Lorita Leung dead at 85

A celebration of life was held Saturday for Lorita Leung, who died on March 5 at the age of 85 and was considered a towering figure in the field of Chinese dance in Canada.

Leung's eponymous dance academy was founded in Vancouver in 1970, and is now based in Richmond. Her daughter Jessica Jone said it was the first of its kind in B.C. and Canada.

The dance instructor was born in Shanghai in 1940, and her daughter said her mother grew up wanting to dance. She spent time in Hong Kong working as a choreographer for a TV station in the 1960s before coming to B.C. to be with her Vancouver-born husband.

Jone, who is now the dance academy's artistic director, said it grew from humble beginnings. Her mother began the academy out of her Chinatown basement while she was teaching at Good Shepherd Church in Vancouver.

"She really was the first to bring Chinese dance to our province," Jone told CBC News.

"Now, of course, we're blessed with so many students and different opportunities for Chinese dance, but really, when she started in 1970, there was very little known about the art form and the culture."

According to the academy's website, it was the first overseas Chinese dance group to be invited to perform in the People's Republic in 1984, and has had numerous performances across Canada.

Leung was given the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal in 1992, and was also recognized by the Vancouver Park Board for her contributions to the arts in 2012.

Jone said over 200 people attended her mother's celebration of life on Saturday, many of whom were students she hadn't seen for decades.

"It was so heartwarming to hear about how people were telling me that she would feed them and, you know, friends telling me that she had cooked for them when they were sick or they had just had a baby," she said.

"She wasn't just a dance teacher. She really was a very humanistic, kind and great leader."

Jone said her mother mentored her in dance since she was two years old, and some of her fondest memories were of working with her mother and father Norm on shows across Vancouver.

"I remember the Kitsilano Showboat being one of our big performances every summer," she said.

"Just to have my mom backstage and me on stage and my father as MC — it was just an incredible way to grow up, and to share that as a family."

Jone said her mother died peacefully in her sleep. She is survived by a grandson and her daughter and son-in-law — both of whom now hope to carry on her legacy at the dance academy.