Meet POP Director & Founder, Tenja Hagenberg
Tenja Hagenberg is an actor-singer-dancer based out of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. She is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Music Theatre Performance program.
Upon graduation, Tenja made Toronto home and spent years working in theatres across Canada; playing leading roles in Tommy, City of Angels, Baby, Copacabana and Eight To The Bar. She was also a featured pop’n’lock dancer for the Smirnoff Experience.
In 2004 she decided to venture abroad as a Principal Singer aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines. Through her adventures on the high seas, she had the opportunity to create her own one-woman show, headline a jazz big band, record her first solo CD, perform in the St. George’s Music Festival in Bermuda and see the world!
In 2008 Tenja returned to Toronto to star in the Dora Award winning Evil Dead; The Musical playing the roles of Shelly & Annie in Toronto’s Diesel Playhouse.
Tenja decided she wanted to see more of the world in 2010 and joined Princess Cruises as a Guest Entertainer. In her time based in Los Angeles with Princess Cruises she had the opportunity to work with top Hollywood stage directors and choreographers. It was a highlight in her career to be a part of the creative process and building of the new productions shows for their latest vessels. Building, playing, workshopping and taking the shows to the final product being performed onboard inaugural voyages of the Princess Cruises Royal Class Vessels.
Tenja returned back to Canada in 2016 and decided to make St. Catharines her home once again, there really is no place like home. She has been performing with different production companies in the GTA and Niagara area; recent favourite credits include Ursula in The Little Mermaid (The Scotiabank Centre) and Donna in Mamma Mia (Greg Frewin Theatre). Tenja, along with director, Monica Dufault, created and produced her one-woman show Around the World And Home Again; A benefit for Canadian Mental Health Association in April of 2018 and plans to bring it back to stages around Ontario. When Tenja Is not performing on stage she loves sharing her expertise with her students at her company Performance On Point!
“My technique in my teaching is based around working scales & vocal tech and alongside that is finding ‘tricks’ for one to ‘find’ their voice. I feel that in lessons; as a continued student myself and working with my students, we can get in our own way because we are overthinking the ‘singing’. That’s where the ‘tricks’ come into play, working the acting, the lyrics and the imagination behind the notes whether singing a scale or an aria! I have had much success myself with the ‘tricks’ and have seen tremendous growth in my students with confidence and getting out of their own way to be the best version of themselves to ‘tell the story’ in auditions, on stage, in a classroom or in rehearsals.”