Tennant, Veronica, 1947- : Veronica Tennant was born in England in 1946 and began studying dance at the age of four. After the family emigrated to Canada in 1955, she continued her dance studies in Toronto with Betty Oliphant, while attending Bishop Strachan School, and then was accepted by the National Ballet School in 1960, graduating in 1963. She was immediately accepted into the company of the National Ballet of Canada, but her debut was delayed by a back injury, the first of a number of dance-related injuries which would sideline her periodically throughout her dancing career.
Tennant's career as a Principal Dancer was launched in 1964, as Juliet in John Cranko's version of the ballet Romeo and Juliet, partnered by Earl Kraul. Juliet proved to be Tennant's signature role, providing a vehicle for her considerable dramatic skill, and was captured in a CBC film directed by Norman Campbell in 1965. She also starred in CBC's Emmy-award winning productions of Cinderella (1968) and Sleeping Beauty (1973), dancing Princess Aurora to Rudolf Nureyev's Prince in the latter. Later roles included Titania in Sir Frederick Ashton's The Dream and Tatiana in John Cranko's Onegin.
Tennant worked with many legendary choreographers during her career, including Erik Bruhn, Roland Petit and Eliot Feld, and created new roles in ballets by Canadian choreographers James Kudelka (Washington Square, etc.), Ann Ditchburn (Mad Shadows), Constantin Patsalas (Canciones, etc.) and David Allan (Villanella, etc.). Her partners included Bruhn, Nureyev, Anthony Dowell, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Schaufuss, Earl Kraul, Edward Villella, Jean-Pierre Bonnefous, Frank Augustyn, Kevin Pugh, Raymond Smith and Rex Harrington, among others. While Tennant often guested internationally, she remained with the National Ballet throughout her 25-year career, touring with the company in the United States, Europe and Japan during the 1970s and 1980s. Tennant announced her retirement from the National Ballet of Canada in 1988 and gave her farewell performance as Juliet in February 1989, appearing in a final gala, A Passion For Dance - Celebrating the Tennant Magic, later the same year.
Tennant had written a children's book, On Stage Please (1977), while she was convalescing from a knee injury, and she collaborated with former skater and artist Toller Cranston on a storybook based on The Nutcracker which was published in 1986. After her retirement from the National Ballet, she wrote articles for its newsletters and for the Toronto Star, and joined the CBC as host and creative consultant/writer for its Sunday Arts Entertainment programme, 1989-1992. While with Sunday Arts Entertainment, she directed two short films and produced the CBC specials Salute to Dancers for Life (1994), Margie Gillis: Wild Hearts in Strange Times (1996), and Karen Kain: Dancing in the Moment (1998). Forming Veronica Tennant Productions in 1998, she produced and directed, as an independent, Words Fail (1999), The Four Seasons (co-produced by Rhombus Media, 2000), The Governor General's Performing Arts Awards (2000), The Dancer's Story: The National Ballet of Canada (co-produced by Sound Venture, 2002), Northern Light: Vision and Dreams (2003), A Pairing of Swans (2003) and Shadow Pleasures (2004). Tennant continued her career as a performer, narrating various concert performances. She headlined On the Town during the 1992 Shaw Festival season, appeared in Cambrium Production's Eric's World (1990) and starred in Rhombus Film's Satie and Suzanne (1995) with Nicholas Pennell. In 1997, in a national tour across Canada, she performed with Timothy Findley in the title role of his Piano Man's Daughter & Others, directed by Paul Thompson and co-starring Sylvia Tyson and Joe Sealy.
Tennant has long been an activist in the field of the performing arts. She was the first dancers' representative on the board of directors of the National Ballet in 1972 and again in 1984. She served as a director of the Ontario Arts Council, 1976-1978, Toronto Arts Awards Foundation, 1988-1990, Glenn Gould Foundation, 1989-1992, Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, 1992-1995, and the Dancer Transition Centre, 1992-1995. She sat on the Canadian Council on the Status of the Artist, 1991-1993, and in 1994 chaired CBC's joint venture, Canadian Arts in Television, which sought a CRTC licence for a speciality channel, Festival. She was Toronto's cultural ambassador for its 2008 Olympic Games campaign in 2000-2001.
Veronica Tennant has received many awards and honours in recognition of her distinction as a Prima Ballerina and her contributions to the performing arts in Canada. She was the first dancer to be made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1975 and was elevated to a Companion in 2004. She received honorary degrees from Brock University (1985), York University (1987), Simon Fraser University (1992) the University of Toronto (1992) and McGill University (2005). She has been the subject of a number of documentaries, including CBC's Veronica Tennant: A Dancer of Distinction (1983) and The Life and Times of Veronica Tennant: Renaissance Woman (2001). She has several titles of honor: C.C., FRSC; D.Litt.; LL.D. (h.c.).
Veronica Tennant married a Toronto doctor, John Wright, in 1969 and they had a daughter, Jessica, in 1977.
