“After 25 years of choreography, I’m learning to improvise.”

Tanya Howard spent 25 years with The National Ballet of Canada, building a career defined by discipline, creativity and performance at the highest level. Born in South Africa, she trained at the National School of the Arts before continuing her training at Canada’s National Ballet School. She joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1998 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2007.

Over the course of her career, Tanya performed an extraordinary range of classical and contemporary work, including featured roles in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, Anna Karenina and The Nutcracker. Her work was recognized with the David Tory Award and the William Marrié Award for Dramatic Excellence.

But after spending most of her life in a world where the next step was carefully rehearsed, Tanya is now discovering what happens when life becomes a little less choreographed.

Today, she is Director of the High Performance Program at IDA, an Executive Coach with High Note and a member of the board at FFD North. Her work continues to centre around performance, growth and supporting others, but her own definition of success has expanded far beyond the stage.

That curiosity is at the heart of Beyond the Applause. Tanya brings the perspective of someone who knows what it means to devote herself completely to a craft, to be evaluated at the highest level and then to step into a chapter where the rules are much less obvious.

Outside of work, she is considerably less structured. She crafts, crochets, puzzles, thrifts, embraces multiple accessories at once and is thoroughly enjoying the big hair that spent decades confined to a ballet bun. She describes herself as “very vibey,” usually has too many tabs open in her head and is willing to entertain almost anything.

Except a kitten heel.