Veronica Tennant's new film Finding Body and Soul airs Sept. 10

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After a lengthy career on stage and screen, former National Ballet of Canada prima ballerina Veronica Tennant has found a new source of happiness behind the camera lens.

Tennant, who spent 25 years as a shining star in the ballet world, has spent her post-dancing life as a producer and director, founding Veronica Tennant Productions in 1998 after already achieving filmmaking success.

The multi-talented star said the transition has been easy and that while her new vocation may seem less glamorous than her previous claim to fame, it is no less rewarding.

"People say that (producing and directing) is such a different thing to do, and in a way it is, but in a way it's not," she said. "In both fields, you need the discipline, working collaboratively and knowing how to use concentration. And the work ethic helps."

Tennant added that both dance and film directing require a sense of timing and a sense of drama, with a flair for the visual.

"Right away, I had a good sense of when to make a cut," she said. "It's very in tune with dancing, which has its physical side but also has a very cerebral side. You have to know when to give a flourish and when to stand perfectly still."

Though she loved the ballet and relished the challenges it presented, Tennant said she knew when the time came to put away her shoes and find a new passion. She finally hung up her ballet shoes. With the excitement and joy her new career offers, she said she does not miss the limelight.

"For 25 years, I danced a glorious career, but I had a lot of injuries and I had to fight to get back every time," she said. "I came back because I wanted to be back, but it wasn't always easy. One knee injury I had, I had to learn to walk for four months before I could work on dancing again."

While she did not feel the need to remain on stage, Tennant still felt the need to communicate with an audience. Her new career has garnered her plenty of accolades, including raves for such CBC specials as Salute to Dancers for Life, Margie Gillis: Wild Hearts in Strange Times and Karen Kain: Dancing in the Moment.

The latter of those earned Tennant a silver medal at the New York Film and Television Festival, a Gemini Award and an International Emmy.

Her latest work, Finding Body and Soul, follows the journey of 13 women as they make their first forays into performing on stage. Celebrated Canadian playwright Judith Thompson directed the piece with Tennant documenting the process as the women learned the ins and outs of theatre and pushed their own personal boundaries.

The women, aged 45 to 78, shared their own personal stories on stage back in May.

While the performances themselves are an obvious highlight, Finding Body and Soul offers a close look at the progress each woman made in transitioning from their regular lives to the theatre.

"It was interesting to see how many of them were tentative in the beginning," Tennant said. "(In the film) you see that they've all been through something special and gone through a change. By the end, you're saying, 'These women are beautiful.'"

The women share stories of their earliest memories, their formative years, their mothers and more, with their tones ranging from pure joy to abject anger. Under the direction of Thompson, the women are able to open up about some their greatest highs and darkest moments.

"It's got a lightness and a buoyancy, but it socks it to you at the same time," Tennant said. "When men and women see this show, they'll never quite look at women over 45 in the same way."

Tennant collected 120 hours of footage, paring it down to under an hour in length for broadcast while still trying to convey the courage, humour and pathos of the women's stories and their journeys. That, she said, was by far the greatest challenge she faced in creating a finished product.

"You've got 13 women and 56 minutes," she said. "It was a real challenge whittling it down, adding something back in, cutting it down again."

Finding Body and Soul will premiere on CBC at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 10, with no commercial interruptions throughout its hour-long running time.