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1 1 1Friday November 17, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insidehalton.com Tradition continues a t Oakville School of Classical B allet The Oakville School of Classical Ballet (OSCB) has been a prestigious school for more than 50 years. The OSCB is known for providing aspiring young dancers the opportunity to reach their goals in the fields of classical and contemporary ballet, through specialized training programs and performance experience. " It [ballet] takes a special kind of child, one who wants to strive toward perfection with detail to their training, while working toward their dreams and their goals," said Amanda Paterson, artistic director of the Oakville School of Classical Ballet. "Whether the child continues to dance professionally or chooses another career in the future, the ballet training is so beneficial, improving confidence, coordination, memorization and discipline, therefore enhancing any lifestyle and career choice." Paterson's mother, Elizabeth, founded the school in 1960, and Paterson became artistic director in the early `90s. "Our professional program within the school caters toward the student who is serious about their ballet training. Graduates of the OSCB have gone on to dance professionally in classical and contemporary companies worldwide; Scottish National Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Orlando Ballet, Ballet Central (U.K.), to name a few," Paterson explained. For those who are seriously considering a career in ballet, Paterson is understands the need to achieve academic excellence while managing a strenuous ballet training. In order to balance both, the students work with an education liaison who helps to arrange schooling, which allows students to attend their dance training in the afternoons. The Professional Training Program commences in Grade 7 by audition or invitation from the artistic director. Leading up to this, students have the opportunity to dance in the after school Pre-Professional Program (ages 10 and up) or in the Young Dancers Division (ages three and up). To make sure students are able to put their training into practise, they are given the opportunity to perform in several productions each year. The most popular, "The Nutcracker" has become an Oakville tradition over the decades. Elizabeth Paterson began to collaborate with Oakville Symphony Orchestra (OSO) in the 1970s by having the dancers perform two of the numbers as part of their annual Christmas Concert at White Oaks High School. Over the years, sets, costumes and backdrop designs have become more elaborate, and the past two decades have seen the ballet performed in its entirety at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. Students from the Young Dancers Program (the general division of OSCB), the Pre-Professional, and Professional Training Programs audition for "The Nutcracker" in September, and rehearsals began in early October. This elaborate production features dancers from ages 7 to 19, and is a traditional festive tale suitable for the whole family. This holiday season you can experience the magic of "The Nutcracker," with five performances being held from December 1 to 3, and tickets are available at the box office of the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. The Oakville School of Classical Ballet is located at 260 Robinson St. Oakville. For more information please call 905-302 5383, email oakvilleballet@gmail.com, or visit www.oakvilleballet.com. Municipal Law team shares passion for improving quality of life Since its inception, Municipal Law Cham bers (MLC) had been located in the finan cial district of downtown Toronto. One of the reasons for the recent move to downtown Oakville was to allow all of the MLC lawyers to be more accessible to their clients with out the traffic congestion of the downtown Toronto location. But more importantly, all of the MLC lawyers either reside in Oakville or have a close connection with the beautiful town. They are all passionate about working with municipalities, developers, homebuild ers and special interest groups to maintain and improve upon the quality of life for all residents. The centuries old concept of a " Law Cham bers" has its roots in England, where special ized litigation lawyers, wishing to maintain their independence as sole proprietors - rath er than as partners - while still surrounding themselves with other specialists, elected to share office space known as a Law Cham bers. Gordon Petch adopted this business mod el approximately 20 years ago creating MLC with his close friend and colleague Russ Cheeseman being the first to join. Together, Petch and Cheeseman recruited senior mu nicipal and civil litigation lawyers from other major Toronto law firms who similarly wanted more independence but also wanted to main tain the same critical mass of expertise to support their practices. There are currently seven lawyers in the MLC group; Gordon Petch, Russell Cheeseman and Stephen Watt (Municipal Law), Tony Caldwell and Zaid Sayeed (Civil Litigation), Milovan Prelevic (Tax Law), and Brian Bell (La bour Law). They are all passionate about working with municipalities, developers, homebuilders, and special interest groups to maintain and improve upon the quality of life for all resi dents. They are a close-knit group of skilled lawyers who express the wish to share their talents to provide the highest level of exper tise to their clients. They have been active with the Oakville Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Oakville Business Improve ment Areas, and are currently lobbying the provincial government to amend OMB Bill 139, which seeks to dramatically diminish the appeal rights of residents. Petch has long been an advocate for amending the provincial funding model for public school renovation and new construction, which is of particular importance for Oakville and Halton Region. Citing their combined expertise and years of experience in Municipal Law, coupled with their personal commitment to the future of G ordon Petch and Russell C heesem an from MLC. Oakville, their mission is to have a positive impact on the direction and future growth or the town for years to come. MLC is located at 277 Lakeshore Rd. E, Suite 211 in Oakville. For more information call 416-955-9530, email info@mlawc.com or visit municipallawchambers.com.