Dancers from Asia’s premiere ballet company, the Hong Kong Ballet, will be joining the talented members of the Oakville Ballet as they combine two of the most iconic classical ballets at its premiere performance in September.
Oakville Ballet will premiere The Kingdom of the Shades excerpt of La Bayadère, and Paquita – Grand Pas Classique as the inaugural performances in September. Adding to the celebration of talent, technical ability, and joyous determination of the young Oakville Ballet dancers will be guest artists Markham born Jessica Burrows and Swedish born Lucas Jerkander, both currently with the Hong Kong Ballet Company.
Born in Markham, Jessica graduated from Canada's National Ballet School in 2009 and danced with the National Ballet of Canada for a year before joining Hong Kong Ballet in 2010 as a member of the Corps de Ballet. She was promoted to Coryphée in 2015. She 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 but a few. She also danced in the world première of Pär Isberg's Pinocchio.
Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, Lucas Jerkander trained at The Royal Swedish Ballet School and was a member of Slovenian National Ballet in 2007. He joined Hong Kong Ballet as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2014, was named Coryphée in 2015 and became Soloist in 2016. With Hong Kong Ballet, Jerkander has danced featured and main roles including Gepetto in the world première of Isberg’s Pinocchio. Before joining the Company, he danced lead roles in Balanchine’s Apollo and 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.
“It is a delight to welcome dancers of their caliber to our production,” said Amanda Paterson, Artistic Director Oakville Ballet. “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.”
Complementing each of the performances will be a live orchestra featuring the colourful rhythmical scores of Ludwig Minkus led by world renowned conductor Judith Yan, Artistic Director for the Guelph Symphony Orchestra. Adding to the compliment of talent will be Concertmaster Lynn Kuo. Based in Toronto, Lynn is the Assistant Concertmaster of the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, in addition to performing with the Canadian Opera Company and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Former Oakville School of Classical Ballet dancer Sharlene Wallace, one of Canada's most prolific and influential Celtic/lever harpists, will be contributing her talents as the performance’s harpist.
There will be two performances, September 16th and 17th, both of which have been made possible by the participation and support of the Bytzek Family of Oakville. Tickets are on sale now at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts.