Staff Writer
CARIBOU — On Sunday, Nov 30 the Robinson Ballet Company performed The Nutcracker for an estimated 450 people. The Nutcracker, a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, has seemingly become a Christmas time staple in Caribou, and the Bangor based Robinson Ballet Company has a long history with CPAC.
“We’ve been a part of the Caribou Performing Arts center for over 20 years,” said Keith Robinson, an artistic director at the Robinson ballet school.
The cast, which is composed of 52 dancers, has been preparing to perform The Nutcracker since September. Sasha Ridlizky, age 12, has been performing The Nutcracker with the Robinson Ballet Company for the past three years. This year, she will dance the part of a child.
“It’s really fun to rehearse with your friends,” said Ridlizky, “the shows are a lot of fun and it’s really exciting.”
“I think it’s more about fun and friendship for them,” said Heather Wagner, “and the dancing is a bonus.” Wagner is the mother of two Nutcracker performers, Sasha and Katrina Ridlizky, age 15. “They have the responsibility that comes with performing, but it’s more about the fun of rehearsals, shows, bus rides, and performances,” she said.
Wagner, from Ellsworth, also stated that Nutcracker season is a big deal in their house. “You know every Saturday is committed from the third Saturday of September until the middle of December; with two kids performing we have some long days, but it’s something we look forward to.”
Daughter Sasha agreed.
“Sometimes you get home very late from the bus rides, but it’s still fun even when you’re tired,” she said.
Though performing is enjoyable for both parents and performers, dancers are also learning valuable life skills.
“Our youngest performer is 9, and they learn that they have to take care of their own stuff,” said Robinson, “It’s a big commitment; they learn discipline, how to perform in front of large audiences, and how to take care of their belongings.”
Being a part of the Robinson Ballet Company is also a great first step for many performers, stated artistic director Maureen Lynch.
They’re actually part of a real company where they’re working together and they’re getting the experience of performing for five weeks in a row,” said Lynch, “Some of the dancers are really excited about coming to Caribou because they’ve never been to northern Maine before.”
Not only do the performers enjoy performing, the community benefits from the Robinson Ballet Company’s annual pilgrimage to Caribou.
“The Nutcracker has become a tradition at the Caribou Performing Arts Center (CPAC),” said CPAC director Joe Zubrick, “which is great because we don’t have that many opportunities for dance here.”
Despite the efforts of CPAC, Aroostook residents unfortunately have little exposure to the performing arts throughout the year.
“You come to northern Maine and there’s not a lot of places you can go for the performing arts,” Zubrick said, “the community relies primarily on the college and CPAC to bring in shows”
The local colleges have cut back on the amount of shows they’ve been able to bring in during the last few years, according to Zubrick.
“I think the community needs a kind of roundedness to its experiences,” Zubrick said, “we want to serve a lot of different audiences and give them lots of different choices, but the economic situation is such that we can’t have all that many choices now. We’re always fighting the notion of how much community support will we have,” he added.
Zubrick also stated that the business supporters of CPAC have been very generous, but he doesn’t know if they can keep going back to the same people over and over again to underwrite the cost of a show.
“People will go and plunk down $100 for a concert ticket to see a band, but they think that a $20 ticket to the performing arts center seems like a lot.”
Though financially difficult at times, Zubrick is determined to continue bringing in performing artists to Caribou.
“It’s important to give people a variety of experiences and open them to those forms of expression; it fills a kind of cultural gap that we don’t have a lot of outlets for,” Zubrick said, “People talk about traveling to New York to see a show once every year or two, but you want to have something that’s accessible on a regular basis, like CPAC.”
