Veronica Tennant C.C., D.Litt, LL.D, FRSC, Class of 1963 (2024)
Veronica Tennant C.C., D.Litt, LL.D, FRSC, Class of 1963 (2024)
Veronica Tennant is one of the 2024 Ken McCarter Award laureates. Prima Ballerina, Director/Producer, Filmmaker, and Author joined the National Ballet Company as Principal Dancer dancing Juliet, on graduating from the National Ballet School as one of its earliest students. For 25 years, she won hearts and accolades for her dramatic talents, performing with such luminaries as Erik Bruhn, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Since 1989, she has garnered acclaim as a filmmaker, director/producer - winning several awards, including the International Emmy for Karen Kain: Dancing in the Moment. Her filmography highlights; collaborations with Michael Ondaatje for Shadow Pleasures, Vida y Danza, Cuba and Celia Franca: Tour de Force.
The author of two children’s books, Veronica is a recipient of The Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, an inductee into Canada’s Walk of Fame and the inaugural, DCD Dance Hall of Fame. Serving as one of UNICEF Canada’s Ambassadors since 1992, Veronica was promoted in 2003, to Companion of the Order of Canada.
Reflecting on her time at NBS, Tennant shares: “It was at Canada’s National Ballet School that my life education began, with an emphasis on shared pride and group striving. Ingrained in us was that committing to Dance was a commitment to a collective. Such training, standards, discipline, taste and style—nurtured in collaboration; these are the infusing legacies of classical ballet that have served me so well in all of my incarnations, indeed my entire life.”
Photo by Liliana Reyes courtesy of Veronica Tennant.