A Suite Success

Robinson Ballet Company perform "Nutcracker" at MCA

By Julia Hall

Posted on Monday, December 8th, 2003, 12:00 am

sarah bigney

ON PRANCER - Clara, played by Jessica Speed, performed with The Bangor Symphony Orchestra and Robinson Ballet in 'The Nutcracker' Saturday afternoon in the MCA.

sarah bigney

TIP TOES - The cast of the Nutcracker, a production at the MCA, danced for full audiences Saturday and Sunday.

For those who are not familiar with the Robinson Ballet and what it’s all about, this weekend’s performances of the holiday classic, “The Nutcracker,” by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, at the Maine Center for the Arts would have been a disappointment.

But considering the production featured all local dancers, including students from River City Dance Center in Bangor and Ellsworth, Thomas School of Dance in Bangor, and the University of Maine, and further considering the MCA stage is not large enough to perfectly execute a production as grand as “The Nutcracker,” the Robinson Ballet did a fair job.

And although most of the dancers were not perfect in terms of technique, it didn’t really matter: the audience loved the show.

Maybe it was the children: the ballet featured 30 youngsters from the Bangor Area Children’s Choir who sang during “A Winter Scene in a Pine Forest,” which included beautiful dances by the Snow Queen (Stevie Dunham of Bangor) and Snow Prince (Caleb McGary of Brewer). Many audience members pointed in delight at the names they recognized on the program.

“It’s sort of a sense of family and community,” Brewer native Rebecca Breau said in a Bangor Daily News article on Thursday, Nov. 27. Breau, who danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, is currently studying dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Breau and Ian Robinson (also of Brewer, and also studying dance at the Tisch School), who danced the role of the Cavalier, were the most professional-looking dancers in the production. Their Grand Pas De Deux was the highlight of the show.

Other crowd favorites were the performance by Clara (Jessica Speed) and the “Coffee from Arabia” dance, performed by Katrina Smedal and Daniel Martin. Smedal, 19, is a junior at the University of Maine majoring in kinesiology. Her portrayal of the Arabian princess was mysterious and sensual.

Most of the production’s strengths were in the second act – which is surprising for a show that is often renowned for its delightful first act. Although the “Winter Scene in a Pine Forest” was magical as always, the second scene, “Home of the Silberhaus Family,” featured simple choreography that might have worked if the stage had not been so crowded. As it happened, most of the dancers were lost on the stage.

The ballet left out scenes that one normally sees in “Nutcracker” productions. For some reason, the Nutcracker doll in Clara’s dream never materialized to look like a human man. Instead, he kept his oversized wooden head, clumsily dancing with only minimal stage time. Whether this was to keep the show shorter or to simply minimize the role of the Nutcracker himself is a mystery.

The music for the production was provided by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. Led by conductor Xiao-Lu Li, world-renowned symphonic conductor and concert violinist from China, the musicians were flawless.

Keith Robinson and Maureen Lynch, co-Artistic Directors for the Robinson Ballet, were ambitious in their decision to produce “The Nutcracker.” Thanks to a few strong performances, they pulled it off. There are few ballets that could get away with this, and “The Nutcracker” is one of them. When the audience came to the MCA Saturday night, they weren’t looking for perfect dancing. They wanted to see holiday magic, filled with dolls that come to life, a battle with the King Rat, dancing sugar plums, princes and queens, and Clara’s Christmas dream that is Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece. Mission accomplished.