Veronica Tennant, C.C., FRSC, D.Litt, LL.D Prima Ballerina, Director/Producer, Filmmaker, & Author
As Principal Dancer with The National Ballet of Canada for 25 years, Veronica Tennant won hearts and accolades for her dramatic talents dancing with such luminaries as Erik Bruhn, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. She has since garnered acclaim as a gifted filmmaker, and producer/director – winning several awards, including the prestigious International Emmy for Karen Kain: Dancing in the Moment (CBC). Her extensive list of television productions, ranges in genre, from arts-performance – to drama – to documentary and includes: Celia Franca: Tour de Force and The Dancers’ Story (for the National Ballet’s 50th anniversary CBC).
For stage; Veronica Tennant was Movement Director for Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad, a collaboration between UK’s Royal Shakespearean Company and Canada’s NAC. She has acted with the Shaw Festival and Young People’s Theatre, and published two children’s books with M&S, On Stage, Please and The Nutcracker, (illustrated by Toller Cranston).
Her extensive list of original shows for screen highlights collaborations with Michael Ondaatje for the multi-award-winning Shadow Pleasures, and Vida Y Danza, Cuba – broadcast nationally in both Canada and Cuba. Veronica conceived and directed the multi-media stage show, NIÁGARA~ A Pan-American Story, commissioned for TO2015.
Veronica Tennant has served as Canada’s National Ambassador for Unicef since 1992 and was elevated in 2003 from Officer, to Companion of the Order of Canada–the Order’s highest honour.
In 2018, Veronica was inducted into the inaugural, Encore! Dance Hall of Fame was presented by Dance Collection Danse and on March 24th, 2019, she presented the award to Karen Kain. Veronica is a producer for Christopher Plummer ~ A Memoir which enjoyed its premiere, in November 2018 at the Winter Garden, and was screened at Hot Docs in May 2019 to benefit Theatre Museum Canada.
