WINDHAM -A Windham family tradition continues, despite

patriarch’s retirement from ballet.

WINDHAM – The love of theater and dance runs strong in the Miele and Davis families of South Windham.

Starting with Jon Miele’s mother, continuing into his and his children’s generation and now taking hold in his grandchildren, that love of the stage spans generations and is on full display at this weekend’s Nutcracker performance at Merrill Auditorium in Portland.

Jon Miele, known to many as the grandson of Pasquale Miele, the original owner of the former South Windham landmark Patsy’s General Store, is also widely known in the ballet world as founder – with his wife, Linda – of the Maine State Ballet.

While still co-director of the ballet company, the company’s biggest performance of the year, “The Nutcracker,” is nearing the end of its 2010 run at Merrill this weekend, and for the first time in a while doesn’t feature Jon Miele as Uncle Drosselmeyer, the toymaker.

“I took a couple-year hiatus a few years ago, but it has to be 20 years or so I’ve been in it,” said the 60-year-old Miele. “And yes, it is strange to be sitting in the audience, but I have a good seat about five rows back, right in the middle. Perfect seats.”

Miele and Linda met in 1974 while performing on Broadway in “Lorelei,” which featured Carol Channing, when both were dancing in New York City. They also performed in “Mack and Mabel” with Bernedette Peters and Robert Preston and traveled the country dancing and acting in regional, dinner and summer theater productions.

Married and wanting to pursue the arts in Maine, in 1975 they took over the Maine State Ballet School for the Performing Arts, which has been in operation in one form or another since the early 1900s. For more than 20 years, “The Nutcracker” has long been an anticipated and prized production for the school, which boasts nearly 600 students, many of whom take part in the annual performance. This year, more than 450 ballet students are taking part.

While Miele always enjoyed performing, he has many other irons in the fire, such as choreographing and directing area high school drama productions as well as upcoming Lyric Music Theater and Portland Players productions. A former drama director at Windham High School, Miele’s busier than ever.

“It’s very strange to be in the audience,” Miele said. “More bittersweet, I’d say. I sometimes get melancholy about it, but the person who plays Uncle Drosselmeyer, James Herrera, is fantastic.”

While wanting to retire from the role several years ago, the decision to finally step down really hit Miele when his 8-year-old granddaughter, Emma Davis, reacted to the news that her grandfather wouldn’t be on stage with her this year.

“That’s the only thing that got to me, when she said something like, ‘Papa, you’re not going to be in it? And I’m a soldier this year.’ We would have been on the stage in the same scene together,” Miele recalled.

But while the absence of Jon Miele from this year’s production comes with some sadness, the Miele family’s stage presence also lives on in Jon’s wife Linda, their daughter Janet Davis and her husband Glenn Davis, all of South Windham.

Linda, who Jon Miele says is the “key to the school’s success,” will remain as artistic director of the school and “The Nutcracker.” Linda Miele, who studied ballet under the famous George Balanchine in New York City early in her career, is likewise conflicted in her husband’s reduced role in this year’s Nutcracker.

“We can’t dance forever,” she said earlier this week while busily preparing to host 2,000-plus area students for several daytime “Nutcracker” performances at Merrill on Tuesday. “It’s a little strange and we certainly miss him, but it’ll give him more opportunities to do other directing, which I know he wants to focus on.”

While Linda will miss her husband’s presence, she’ll probably be too busy to reminisce, as her daughter Janet Davis and son-in-law Glenn Davis play lead roles in this year’s production.

The Davises, who also help Jon and Linda Miele operate the Maine State Ballet, play important roles, with Glenn, 40, playing the Nutcracker Prince and Janet, 34, alternating between turns as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara with another ballerina.

Speaking for his wife and himself, Glenn Davis “feels a responsibility to dance” and says the ballet company is a “wonderful family.”

“It’s part of this great tradition of seeing kids grow up in the company just as Clara grows up in the Nutcracker,” he said. “It’s a great family tradition, that’s what I enjoy the most. That, and being a representative of ballet and the arts.”

Glenn Davis said Janet, who marks her 31st “Nutcracker” performance this year, “converted” him to dance after he played baseball for the University of Maine at Orono. The two have been married for 14 years. And now their daughter, Emma, is also getting into the act, literally.

“Emma’s great,” Glenn Davis said. “She’s the third generation, and she’s a soldier this year.”

After more than 20 years on the “Nutcracker” stage, Jon Miele, a South Windham native and longtime stage performer, will instead watch his family perform in the Maine State Ballet’s “Nutcracker” this weekend. (Courtesy photo)