Dance Partners Bangor Symphony Orchestra and Robinson Ballet collaborate in bringing “The Nutcracker” for the 20th year

People know “The Nutcracker.” They know it as a Christmas ballet with Clara Silberhaus, Drosselmeyer, the Mouse King and Sugar Plum Fairy. They know it as Tchaikovsky’s holiday music with Russian, Chinese and Arabian marches, waltzes and dances.

Here in Bangor, we know the ballet another way – as an annual collaboration between the Robinson Ballet Company and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. When the Silberhaus family stages its holiday party at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, it will mark the 20th anniversary of two Bangor institutions working together to present the ballet. Dozens of dancers and musicians, not to mention thousands of audience members, many of them little girls with ballerina ambitions and little boys with toy soldier dreams, celebrate the spirit of Christmas. For some, it’s the first time going to a live performance. For many of the dancers and musicians, it is the first chance to perform in front of a live audience.

Anyway you look at it, “The Nutcracker” is a cultural anchor for the community. It also underscores the artistic and civic missions of both organizations.

“To be able to have something each year for the dancers – something consistent – is a building tool for a company,” said Maureen Lynch, co-artistic director at Robinson Ballet. “The Bangor Symphony has supported us from day one. They’ve made that commitment. They trust us to put on a good production. Every year, we’ve grown, and they’ve supported us. Now we’re able to do things ourselves and help them, too. They’ve been here for 100 years. They were here before us. That they would continue to support us is wonderful.”

Lynch and her husband, Keith Robinson, have choreographed and performed in the show, either at the MCA or on tour, for each of the last 20 years – even in 1984, when Lynch was pregnant. (Their son Ian, a tennis champ in high school, has also danced in the show.)

The company has performed “The Nutcracker” at Peakes Auditorium at Bangor High School, the Bangor Opera House downtown and Hauck Auditorium on the University of Maine campus. And the show has always opened, to taped music, at the University of Maine at Machias on the weekend before Thanksgiving. But for many years, the MCA has been the resident performance spot, one always shared with the BSO.

“We have very little opportunity to work with live musicians,” said Lynch. “It adds another artistic element. You get an energy from live music – a human energy that adds to the whole atmosphere and production. You don’t get that with taped music.”

Billy Miller, pharmacist at Miller Drug in Bangor, has played percussion with the orchestra for 48 years. As the BSO’s longest standing member, he has seen the comings and goings of conductors, dance companies, musicians, Christmas trees, costumes and fake snow for the annual ballet.

“Even though we’ve played it many times, we still have to practice. And every year, there’s a musician who is playing it for the first time,” said Miller. “That’s refreshing. But people love playing it. The whole orchestra looks forward to it. It’s happy music, and we love playing to young audiences who are awed and open-mouthed about it.”

Miller stays in the pit during intermission to greet children who ask questions about the cymbal, gong, triangle, chime, bass drum and other instruments he juggles throughout the show. For the battle scene between the Nutcracker and Mouse King, Miller used to shoot off a gun.

“They don’t let us do it anymore,” he said. “I thought it would be fun to go outside and shoot the gun and mike it into the auditorium. But I haven’t been able to work that out.”

From his perch in the orchestra pit, Miller has seen the same sliver of the show onstage every year. But he never gets bored.

French horn players traditionally sit at the back of the orchestra, beyond the sight lines of the stage. So when Scott Burditt, principal horn player, showed up last week to have his picture taken with Robinson Ballet soloists Nathaniel Bond and Jesse Dunham, he watched with amazement as the dancers moved across the stage. “So,” he said, “this is what all that banging is about above our heads.”