“The Nutcracker” may well be the most popular performing arts event of the year. The Robinson Ballet Company teamed with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra this weekend at the Maine Center for the Arts to highlight all the reasons for this. Tchaikovsky’s dreamscape of childhood holiday magic has the power to put a song in the most humbuggish of hearts.

The amazing aspect is that these same arts organizations can continue to put the show on year after year without growing stale. They travel around the state and then, as with this weekend, present several performances at the Maine Center, but there’s no sense of exhaustion or boredom. Only family fun and the annual assurance of something lovely.

Choreographers Kelly Holyoke, Maureen Lynch and Keith Robinson clearly aren’t content to make the same moves year after year. Though there are parts that could use a jolt (for instance, some of the more classical segments), this year’s show had some refreshing choreography that had real spark.

For the rag doll and harlequin sequences in Act I, Dorthea M. Garland, Stevie Dunham and Megan Dickinson tightened up their limber arms and legs for superbly wooden — and quite elegant — dancing. Similarly, in Act II, Lani Corson and Ian Robinson moved with darling brightness as the reed flutes.

Rebecca Schweikert, who paired with the ably muscled Eric Gardner, was lissome and seductive. And thank goodness Lynch is still performing as the Sugar Plum Fairy, because she’s the real thing when it comes to ballerinas.

Anyone following the company over the years surely noticed the absence of Holyoke’s brisk contribution to the production, but Heather Cox brought colorful bloom to the role of the Snow Queen. Cox paired with Alexander Zendzian, as the Snow Prince (as well as the best male dancer in the troupe), for one of the most consonant twosomes this company has presented in a long time.

As Clara, Rebecca Breau was smilingly sweet with her long tresses of ginger hair bouncing each time she leapt. Her pleasantry on stage played nicely off the antics of Ian Robinson, who was light-footed and indefatigable as Fritz and other incidental roles.

Individual dancers and the pas de deux were the strengths of this year’s “Nutcracker.” At Saturday afternoon’s performance, the corps had some bumpy moments, as did the Bangor Symphony, under the direction of Christopher Zimmerman. Still, little girls in the audience were enraptured. Some were even dancing in the aisles. That, after all, is the glory that Robinson Ballet taps into so truly each year.

“The Nutcracker” will be performed at The Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 12 and 13. Call