The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, September 16, 2016 | 26 John Bkila Sub-Editor jbkila@oakvillebeaver.com Oakville Ballet's premiere performance combines iconic shows Artscene T "Connected to your Community" Dancers from Asia's premier ballet company, the Hong Kong Ballet, will be joining members of the Oakville Ballet as it combines The Kingdom of the Shades excerpt of La Bayadère, and Grand Pas Classique from Paquita in a performance staged today (Friday, Sept. 16) and Saturday (Sept. 17). At a rehearsal held earlier this month are Camille Rene-Waterhouse (above, in front) and Leah Terry (above, right) with the ballet corps. | Nikki Wesley/Metroland wo dancers from Asia's premier ballet company will be joining the Oakville Ballet as it combines two of the most iconic classical ballets tonight (Sept. 16). Markham native Jessica Burrows and Sweden native Lucas Jerkander, both dancers with the Hong Kong Ballet Company, will make a special guest performance in the Oakville Ballet's premiere production of La Bayadère / Paquita. It takes the stage at the Oakville Centre for Performing Arts' Willson Auditorium tonight (Sept. 16) and tomorrow (Sept. 17) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $38. The show will be performed in two acts with the first featuring Marius Petipa's celebrated The Kingdom of the Shades, and other excerpts extracted from the full-length ballet La Bayadère. The second act will showcase the Grand Pas Classique from Paquita. Amanda Paterson, artistic director of Oakville Ballet, said she's delighted to welcome Burrows and Jerkander to their production. "We know this exciting performance featuring such marvelous physical athleticism from young dancers will serve as not only a moment of celebration but also inspiration to other young dancers," she stated in a media release. Burrows graduated from Canada's National Ballet school in 2009 and danced with the National Ballet of Canada a year before joining Hong Kong Ballet in 2010 as a member of the Corps de Ballet. She was promoted to Coryphée in 2015 and has performed many feature roles with the company including red skirt soloist in In Light and Shadow, Kitri's friend in Don Quixote and the Russian doll and Egyptian doll in The Nutcracker to name a few. She also danced in the world première of Pär Isberg's Pinocchio. Jerkander trained at The Royal Swedish Ballet School and was a member of Slovenian National Ballet in 2007. He joined Hong Kong Ballet's Corps de Ballet in 2014, was named Coryphée in 2015 and became a soloist in 2016. He has danced in main roles including Gepetto in the world premiere of Isberg's Pinocchio. Before joining the company, he danced lead roles in Balanchine's Apollo and | Nikki Wesley/Metroland Serenade, Bournonville's La Sylphide, Dawson's Giselle, Kylian's Svadebka, Mukhamedov's Don Quixote and The Sleeping Beauty, and Vamos' Romeo and Juliet and The Nutcracker. Complementing the performance will be a live orchestra featuring the scores of Ludwig Minkus led by world renowned conductor Judith Yan, artistic director for the Guelph Symphony Orchestra. Adding to the talent will be concertmaster Lynn Kuo, assistant concertmaster of the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, who performs with the Canadian Opera Company and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Former Oakville School of Classical Ballet dancer Sharlene Wallace, a prolific and influential Canadian Celtic/ lever harpists, will serve as the performance's harpist. For tickets, visit www.oakvillecentre.ca. Hinchcliffe ties leaderboard on DWTS premiere Oakville's James Hinchcliffe took the lead right out of the gate during the premiere of Dancing With The Stars Monday night (Sept. 12). As one of the first performances of the night, the Canadian race car driver and his professional dance partner Sharna Burgess tied the leader board with a score of 31 out of 40 with American gymnast Laurie Hernandez and her professional dancer partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy. "Tonight was shocking I think in a few ways, but obviously it was an incredible night," Hinchcliffe said in a media release. "For us to come out second, I was a bit nervous to go early , but on the other hand it was kind of nice to get it out of the way. We've been practicing so hard working on that routine. Sharna is an incredible teacher and an incredible choreographer and that I think really showed," he continued. "The dance went off better than we could have expected. The judges' scores and comments were better than anyone could have expected for Night 1. We're just over the moon with how it came together." The reality TV series, now in its 23rd season, sees celebrities paired with professional dancers to compete for judges', audiences' and TV viewers' votes week after week until a winning pair is awarded the coveted Mirror Ball Trophy. Judges' votes are paired with those of viewers to decide who advances each week. Hinchcliffe, 29, danced the foxtrot to Live Life by Zayde Wolf -- particularly highlighting the race car driver's attitude to his recovery and return to racing following a 2015 crash during practice for the Indianapolis 500. Judge Len Goodman commented on how impressed he was with Hinchcliffe's fluidity dancing, while judge Bruno Tonioli said he couldn't wait to see him do a Latin dance. Rounding out the judges panel are Carrie Ann Inaba and Julianne Hough. The show is co-hosted by Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews. Dancing With The Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. To view a Youtube video of Hinchcliffe's performance, visit http://goo.gl/iuidaO. Oakville race car driver James Hinchliffe and his professional dance partner Sharna Burgess perform on the Monday night (Sept. 12) premiere of Dancing With The Stars. | Eric McCandless/ABC