Jeanne-Marie Aubert ¹⁰⁵²⁹

Bangor Daily News
Bangor, Maine
Saturday, January 23, 2010
p. 5

Robinson Ballet co-founder dies

BANGOR - The Swiss-born ballerina who co-founded the Robinson Ballet with her husband in 1975 has died at a Belfast nursing facility, according to family members.

Jeanne-Marie Aubert Robinson, who danced professionally under her maiden name, was 72 when she died Jan. 19, said nephew Keith Robinson of Brewer, who co-directs the Bangor ballet company with his wife, Maureen Lynch Robinson.

"I would say that Jeanne-Marie was the quintessential Sugar Plum Fairy, in the sense that she could charm any audience as well as those who were on stage with her," Robinson said Friday.

Keith Robinson, who in 1984 danced the role of the Cavalier in "The Nutcracker" with his aunt, credited her and her husband, Maine native Ralph Robinson of Northport, for convincing him to embark on his own career in ballet when he was 22 and working in a Belfast chicken processing plant.

Keith Robinson and his wife are the second generation of the family to make careers of ballet, he said. He said their son, Ian Robinson, recently completed world tours with Mikhail Baryshnikov's Hell's Kitchen and now is dancing in Tel Aviv, Israel, Robinson said.

"So it's in the genes," he said.

Jeanne-Marie Aubert Robinson began her career in Switzerland, then danced in England and France before coming to the U.S., where she danced and was partnered with the famed dancer Igor Youskevitch in his New York company, Ballet Romantique.

She also taught at the Cambridge School of Ballet, was a guest dancer with the Boston Ballet and starred in three U.S. tours for Columbia Artists.

She came to Bangor with her husband, Ralph, after the two retired from their professional careers as principal dancers with the Lyon Opera Ballet in France, according to an obituary submitted by her daughter, Maya Robinson of Woodside, N.Y.

Here, she danced and choreographed for the Maine State Ballet and the University of Maine and taught for the Thomas School of Dance in Bangor.

After retiring from the dance world, she continued to pursue art, including quilting, painting and making collages, her nephew said.

She is survived by her husband. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations be made in Aubert Robinson's name to the Robinson Ballet, P.O. Box 1885, Bangor 04402-1885.

The Robinson Ballet school has an enrollment of about 100 students ranging in age from 3 to adulthood, Keith Robinson said.

Jeanne-Marie married Living