Veronica Tennant, C.C.

Veronica Tennant can truly be called a Renaissance Woman. As Prima Ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada, she won hearts and accolades as a dancer of extraordinary versatility and dramatic power. For 25 years, she danced on stages around the world with such luminaries as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Tennant has reinvented herself as an award-winning producer/director and filmmaker while expanding on her gifts as a communicator, performer, and author. Her meteoric rise in film and television has garnered her several awards including the prestigious International Emmy Award. Since forming Veronica Tennant Productions in 1998, she has conceived, directed, and produced an extensive body of work including Shadow Pleasures, a collaboration with Michael Ondaatje, which won an unprecedented seven Golden Sheaf Awards at the Yorkton Film Festival, and her film Celia Franca: Tour de Force, was named the Best Dancefilm of 2006 by The Toronto Star.

In 2007, Tennant choreographed the theatrical adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad, a collaboration between the RSC performing in Stratford, England, and then the NAC in Ottawa. Her recent successes include Vida y Danza, Cuba, which was invited to the Havana Film Festival and received two Gemini nominations and rave reviews. Further, her documentary Finding Body & Soul, made for CBC Television about the creation of a play by Judith Thompson, won the New York Film Festival's Silver Award.

Tennant has been widely honoured as a role model and icon for her far-reaching contribution to Canada's arts and culture. She has honorary Doctorates from the Universities of: Brock, York, Simon Fraser, McGill, and University of Toronto. In 2004, she was given the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts by the Canada Council and was awarded the prestigious Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. The first dancer to be appointed to the Order of Canada as Officer in 1975, Tennant was elevated for the range of her artistic achievements in 2004, to the rank of Companion, Canada's highest honour.

Alongside Tennants impressive achievements however, come her personal stories of struggles with several major injuries. She made it back to the stage after an absence of 15 months following pioneer knee surgery when she had to learn to walk again before she could dance again, and she is paying the price still, humorously describing herself as the "walking wounded." 

Tennant is passionately committed to youth and the development of potential, particularly in the face of adversity. She has published two children's books and has served as Canada's National Ambassador for UNICEF since 1992.

A 2001 inductee of Canada's Walk of Fame, Tennant is a much sought-after narrator and effervescent host. With irresistible candour and humour, Tennant gives engaging and vivacious presentations on widespread topics revealing the tumbles and triumphs and the risks and rewards of a public life.

For more, please see: www.veronicatennant.com

• 3. RAISING THE BARRE AND VAULTING THE HURDLES – OVERCOMING THE ROAD-BLOCKS

  Veronica Tennant's perseverance and tenacity are legendary. Throughout her first career as Prima Ballerina of The National Ballet of Canada she was sidelined with major injuries, including four herniated discs - one at the beginning of her career - a knee operation mid career, where she had to learn to walk again before she could return to dance - and a post career hip replacement. She speaks movingly of how she grappled with the physical and emotional pain, turning the negative into the positive with such examples as the writing of her two books, exploring her transition options, and becoming a mother.
  
  "Learning lessons which transform what could have been failures - into successes - is what life is all about!"

• 2. THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE PRESENT TENSE: HOW TO RE-INVENT ONESELF WHILE INVESTING IN OUR CHILDREN

  How can we tackle CHANGE? Veronica Tennant shares and applies her experiences from her various career-paths. Passionately committed to Youth, she addresses the importance of encouraging bravery and imagination, while listening to and inspiring our younger generations to take command of their individuality and potential.
  
  "CHANGE is the order of the day. Today is tomorrow."

• 1. LIFE IS A COLLABORATIVE ART

  Veronica Tennant speaks compellingly about her commitment to COLLABORATION - the key to her diversified life-careers and stature as a Canadian icon. Astonishingly, she has translated her talent and skills as a star of the international ballet stage, to an award-winning director/producer and writer in the worlds of television, theatre and film. Equally acclaimed as a Filmmaker, Television Host, Stage-personality and Lecturer, she gives an engaging and candid telling of her personal challenges in tough collective arenas. Leading by example, Veronica Tennant shares her essentials for optimum performance and excellence.
  
  "No apologies about being a Leader - the strength of collaboration is actually fueled by the force of independence."

• Deeply Inspiring...
  Audrey O'Brien, Clerk of the House of Commons