After narrowly escaping Nazi persecution during World War II, she moved to Malmö, Sweden, in 1950 and to Stockholm in 1953.
In 1938, the family moved to Paris where she studied under such prominent instructors as Olga Preobrajenska, Victor Gsovsky and Nora Kiss.
[2] During the German occupation of France, her father, mother and brother were all captured and murdered by the Nazis, but thanks mainly to her young age Lia managed to survive.
Thanks to the Jewish Resistance, she spend the remainder of the occupation in Paris where her former trainer Gsovsky helped her to escape detection.
[2][3] Around 1950, while she was performing at the Théâtre de Paris as a dancer in Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow, she was discovered by Carl-Gustaf Kruuse af Verchou [sv], the ballet master at the Malmö City Theatre.
She went on to introduce the latest European and American trends to Sweden, collaborating with Stockholm University to offer a course in both classical and modern dance.
Schubert was successful in persuading the instructor Walter Nicks to join the Ballet Academy and introduce jazz dance to Sweden.