Sonia Taverner

Sonia Taverner (18 May 1936 – 10 February 2018) was an English-born Canadian ballet dancer. She danced with the corps of the Sadler's Wells Ballet for 18 months and moved to Canada in 1956 and joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet from 1956 to 1966. Taverner moved on to join the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and performed with the company between 1966 and 1974, when she retired as the company's principal dancer. She taught at the Performing Arts faculty at Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton, Alberta from 1975 to 1980 and then ran her own dance school in Edmonton from 1980.

Early life Taverner was born in Byfleet, Surrey, England on 18 May 1936. She was the daughter of H. J. Taverner. When she was 12, Taverner took an interest in classical music, and started her dance studies in the weekly ballet classes of a local teacher. and enrolled at the Elmhurst Ballet School on a scholarship when she was 15. The school offered a curriculum of academic courses combined with a fine arts programme. encompassing a single season that included a tour of Canada and the United States. That same year, she joined Gweneth Lloyd's newly established Royal Winnipeg Ballet, being regularly paired with Fredric Strobe, and as a representative of Canada at the Commonwealth Arts Festival, London.

She was prima ballerina from 1962 to 1966. Nault's Pas Rompu, Divertissement Glazounov, Cérémonie, George Balanchine's Theme and Variations and Allegro Brillante, Norman Walker's Trionfo di Afrodite,

Returning to Canada, Taverner appeared with the newly formed Festival Ballet of Ottawa, and once again with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Later in the year, Taverner retired as principal dancer of Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, and moved to Western Canada. citing the need of a lifestyle change to examine an academic perspective of teaching. She taught at her own school close to Edmonton from 1980,

Personal life Taverner was a member of the Royal Academy of Dancing, the Actors' Equity Association and the American Guild of Musical Artists.