Life and Times Renaissance Woman: The Life and Times of Veronica Tennant (Season 5, Episode 12)
TV Episode | 43 min | Documentary, Biography

Life and Times

Renaissance Woman: The Life and Times of Veronica Tennant (Season 5, Episode 12)

TV Episode | 43 min | Documentary, Biography

Over her 25-year dance career, Veronica Tennant's reputation grew to international stature along with that of the National Ballet of Canada. She earned accolades in every major classical role as well as having several ballets choreographed...See moreOver her 25-year dance career, Veronica Tennant's reputation grew to international stature along with that of the National Ballet of Canada. She earned accolades in every major classical role as well as having several ballets choreographed for her. And although she retired from the ballet 11 years ago, she has never stopped working. She is a wife, mother, broadcaster, children's author, television producer and director - a true Renaissance woman. With film footage documenting her entire career and interviews with National Ballet of Canada icon Celia Franca, ballet superstars Rex Harrington and Evelyn Hart, writer Timothy Findley, and her friends and family, Veronica Tennant: Renaissance Woman explores the many sides of one of Canada's greatest artists, Veronica Tennant. 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, 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. Written by MDf Productions Inc. See less

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Cast	+ Add Cast
7 cast members

Name	Known for
Veronica Tennant Self Self See fewer	Shadow Pleasures (2004)
Mikhail Baryshnikov Self (archive footage) Self (archive footage) See fewer	The Turning Point (1977)
Timothy Findley Self Self See fewer	The Wars (1983)
Rex Harrington Self Self See fewer	The January Man (1989)
Evelyn Hart Self Self See fewer	II (2012)
Rudolf Nureyev Self (archive footage) Self (archive footage) See fewer	Valentino (1977)
Donald Sutherland Narrator Narrator See fewer	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)