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Veronica Tennant
Veronica Tennant
Veronica Tennant
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In 1955, the Tennants came to Canada from
London, England to make a new life for themselves and their
two girls. Dancing from the age of four, Tennant remembers,
"Within one week of our arrival - we didn't have furniture,
we didn't have anything, I don't think I was even in school...but
I was in ballet classes." Nine classes a week, then
homework until 11 p.m. every night. At age 18, she became
the youngest person ever to enter the National Ballet Company,
and made her debut in the principal role in Romeo and Juliet.
By 1976, she was living every ballet student's dream - a star
at the National Ballet and touring across North America, Europe
and Japan with the greatest male dancers of our time, including
Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Rudolf Nureyev.
Like any other dancer, Tennant has had to find
a second life beyond the stage. Since her retirement at the
age of 43, she has written and produced a series of successful
dance television specials, winning an International Emmy Award
in 1999 for Karen Kain: Dancing in the Moment.
She is also Toronto's cultural ambassador for the 2008 Olympic
Bid, the latest in an impressive line of roles she's played
to promote the arts. Now 54, the physical effort of her lifelong
passion in dance is taking its toll. This month she will undergo
hip replacement surgery, a not-uncommon side effect for professional
dancers.
Original Air Date - January 30, 2001
Links
The
National Ballet of Canada
Veronica
Tennant
Canada's
Walk of Fame
Read
the archived transcripts of the CBC online chat with Veronica
Tennant
(Note: CBC does not endorse the content of external
sites)
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