Gin Smith found her love of Dance growing up training with Ballet Arkansas and Southern Ballet Theatre (now Orlando Ballet) where she performed various roles in The Nutcracker and Cinderella. She continued her ballet dance training as she found a love of musical theatre. After performing around Central Florida throughout high school she performed in a variety of parades and shows at Walt Disney World, including the 25th Anniversary Remember the Magic parade, SpectroMagic, and the Sparkling Christmas Spectacular.
Gin received her BA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Musical Theatre from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. There she continued her dance training with Kiesha Lalama, Ron Tassone, and Susan Stowe.
Along with a love of performing Gin has a profound love of teaching, and has spent the last decade teaching dance and musical theatre, as well as choreographing and directing productions in the Orlando area. Favorite credits include Ragtime (Choreographer/Assistant Director), Big Fish (Assistant Director/Assistant Choreographer), Mary Poppins (Assistant Director/Assistant Choreographer), Seussical (Director/Choreographer), Hairspray (Tracy Turnblad), A Chorus Line (Lara), and Crazy for You (Tess).
In 2015 Gin moved to Richmond from Orlando, FL where she worked as a choreographer/assistant director at the Orlando Repertory Theatre, and as a dance instructor at St. Luke’s School of the Arts and Act III Studios.
Since teaching with CVDA Gin has twice attended the teacher training at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet where she had the amazing opportunity to learn from Marcia Dale-Weary, Darla Hoover, and Melinda Howe. This past spring she had the chance to attend the teachers’ seminar at Pacific Northwest Ballet School under director Peter Boal. She is thrilled to be bringing her love of dance and performance to the students at CVDA.