`The Nutcracker’ a holiday delight for children

For most of my life, I’ve had no idea what a sugar plum was. But that never stopped me from going to the annual holiday performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker.” The local production, presented devoutly by Robinson Ballet and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, opened at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono last night with all the usual fanfare.

Probably very few of the many children attending last night’s show were pondering sugar plums. And probably very few of the children attending the remaining three performances, for which there are still tickets, will be thinking about candy at all. They will be thinking about their new lacy red dresses or smart bow ties, and holiday presents, and the oddity of giving someone a nutcracker as a gift, and all the strange and wonderful things that happen in the dreams of Clara Siberhaus.

This is the only time of year this beloved story takes place, and if you have the good fortune to have children to escort, or at least are lucky enough to be seated near some youngsters, this ballet can be one of the most heartwarming and fun events of the holiday season.

Thanks to the cast of spirited choreographers, to music director Christopher Zimmerman and the snappy musicians of the BSO, the stage really is set for making dreams seem real. The Robinson company continues to cast its standout dancers in lead roles: Kelly Holyoke as the Snow Queen (in evening performances only), Maureen Lynch as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Heinrick Snyder and Alexander Zendzian, who alternate as the Cavalier.

The children — both those in the audience and those in the ballet — are what this evening is really all about. More than 5,000 people, many of whom have seen this story several times, are likely to attend this year’s production. They don’t care what sugar plums are either. They just know that “The Nutcracker” is the stuff of holiday enchantment, and of the smiles on the faces of young children as they fall asleep to dreams of magical worlds.

Robinson Ballet and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra will perform “The Nutcracker” at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2 and 3 p.m. Dec. 3 at the Maine Center for the Arts. For tickets, call 942-5555.