Everyone knows the story of Sleeping Beauty. Basically, Princess Aurora sleeps for a hundred years and awakens fresh as a daisy, without having aged a day. (There’s also some stuff about a prince.) This is a pretty good template for understanding National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Sonia Rodriguez.
As she celebrates her 25th year with the company, Rodriguez is as energetic, driven and youthful as she was when she began dancing professionally in Toronto at age 17. In a way, it’s like no time has passed.
In fact, if you buy yourself a ticket to the ballet this June, you’ll see Rodriguez embody this metaphor as she reprises the first big role of her career: Princess Aurora.
“It’s kind of a nice way to come full circle I think,” says Rodriguez, speaking from the Forest Hill home she shares with husband Kurt Browning (yes, that Kurt Browning) and their two children.
“It was my first principal lead role, and at that time it proved I deserved to be there, so I’m happy to be doing it again.”
Aside from running family errands, Rodriguez is also spending her day outside the studio reflecting on her quarter century of accomplishments with the National Ballet and her transition from novice ballerina to mature, confident principal dancer. (As she speaks, it becomes clear that a more complex character than a fairy tale princess is needed to represent Rodriguez. She’s strong and youthful, yes, but she hasn’t been asleep or remained unchanged — her career has been totally transformative.)
“Twenty-five years is a long time, and I would be lying if I said there were no ups and downs,” Rodriguez says.
“There have definitely been moments of self-doubt, but I think that’s just part of growth as a person and as an artist. Now I’m in a place where I can look back and see how much I accomplished and be very proud of that.”
It was on Valentine’s day in 1990 that Rodriguez successfully auditioned for the NBC after being noticed at a ballet competition by Bettty Oliphant, founder of Canada’s National Ballet School.
The dancer has since performed countless roles, overcome injury and worked under three different Artistic Directors at the National Ballet.
“People tend to move around, especially when a new director comes in,” says Rodriguez, “but I had tremendous respect for each director, and they each brought something new to the company that suited me in one way or another. I always felt that I was challenged artistically.”
This love of challenge is perhaps the secret to her longevity.
More than anything, Rodriguez seems to want to tackle obstacles in her path head-on, and a life in the professional ballet provides ample opportunity for that.
“It’s an environment where you’re subjected to other people’s opinions, and because it’s so competitive, it can be a hard psychological environment,” she explains.
“You spend most of the day trying to find faults in yourself, aiming to reach this unattainable perfection.”
In pursuit of perfection, she has also pushed her body to the point of injury, but today she is beyond that excessive stage.
“When you’re younger, you push more than you should, and you have the advantage of a really young body that can take anything,” says Rodriguez.
“Now I understand my body so much better, and I can do so much more. There’s just a lot more knowledge to work with.”
That hard-earned insight extends beyond mere physicality: today, she views all the rigours of her job as a learning process.
“When you’re younger,” she begins again, “it’s very easy to feel the pressure of trying to please others, which I think sometimes actually hinders your growth. Years of maturity give you the strength and knowledge and confidence to strip those things away, and there’s a certain freedom that comes with that. You can be your best without any baggage.”
Of course, what underpins all those years of work is the sheer love of dance. Rodriguez has trouble naming her favourite roles, likely because she grows to love every role she plays (and also because they are legion). Eventually, though, she cites Tatiana in Onegin, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Manon in Manon, and Giselle in Giselle as her best-loved parts.
“I love roles that are character based because I love the process of discovering what the character is and how to express different emotions with the body,” Rodriguez says.
Karen Kain, current Artistic Director of the company, confirms that Rodriguez makes her passion for characterization visible.
“She is a gifted artist and a beautiful dancer whose performances are filled with emotion and passion, executed with impressive technique,” says Kain. “Sonia has been and remains one of the National Ballet’s most cherished and admired performers.”
All of Rodriguez’s career ambition is balanced, thankfully, by a down-to-earth home life. Rodriguez and Browning have resided in Forest Hill for nearly two decades, and Rodriguez values the ’hood for the simplest of reasons.
“I like that there’s a sense of community and that I don’t have to get in the car if I want to go to the store,” she says.
The family’s established routines include eating out at Ferraro and Tokyo Sushi where they are, indeed, sometimes recognized.
Though Rodriguez has obviously already reached a professional peak, she is reluctant to discuss a life after ballet.
“It’s hard for me to even consider not dancing,” she admits. “Of course I have to be realistic — I’m not going to have another 25 years, but I think as a dancer you’re always a dancer. It’s not just a job — it’s an identity.”
Rodriguez goes on to reiterate her love of the stage and of losing herself in the moment, before adding Princess Aurora to her list of favourite roles.
“The ballad in The Sleeping Beauty is so dear to me,” she says.
“It’s ballet at its purest, and there’s something refreshing about that. It’s very difficult technically, and there are not a lot of grey areas: it’s pretty black and white in terms of what it should look like and how it should be approached.”
This difficulty probably explains why Rodriguez lists it among her cherished roles — it’s yet another challenge for her to embrace.
