ISDI is a five-week artist in-residence program that hosts master teachers from around the world that was recognized as the Top Summer Program for youth by Colorado Parent Magazine in 2004. The program will run from June 21 - July 23, 2010. For more information please call 303 295 1759, ext. 10.
Biography
Cleo Parker Robinson is the Founder, Executive Artistic Director and Choreographer of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. Ms. Robinson is a native of Denver and a graduate of Denver University, formerly Colorado Women's College
(CWC) in the field of Dance, Education and Psychology. Ms. Robinson began
teaching college level dance at the age of fifteen at the University of
Colorado. She taught dance throughout high school and had started her
own company by the time she graduated from CWC. Cleo's most influential
mentors are Rita Berger, a former dancer with George Balanchine and soloist
with the Metropolitan Opera, and the legendary choreographer and humanitarian
Katherine Dunham. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, now 32 years old, celebrates
the internationally renowned Ensemble, a year-round dance school, an in-school
lecture/demonstration series, an international summer dance institute,
a three-hundred seat theatre and an outreach program for at-risk youth
called Project Self-Discovery (PSD). PSD provides the arts to at risk
youth in Denver as an alternative to gang activity, peer pressure and
substance abuse.
Since 1970, Cleo Parker Robinson has collaborated consistently with local
artists, symphonies, theatre and opera companies. She has also collaborated
with acclaimed artists such as Dr. Maya Angelou and Gordon Parks Sr. World
renowned choreographers such as Donald McKayle, Talley Beatty, Katherine
Dunham, Dianne McIntyre and Eleo Pomare have set dance pieces on the Ensemble.
Ms. Robinson's opera collaborations include: Aida, Samson and Delilah,
Carmen, Salome and a spring 2000 directing debut with Opera Colorado on
the production of Porgy and Bess. Collaborations with the Colorado Symphony
Orchestra include: Porgy and Bess, Night at the Opera, Carmina Burana,
Bernstein’s Mass, Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Prokiev’s
Cinderella. In 1999, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance collaborated with the
Tony Award winning Denver Center Theatre Company on a production of Dream
on Monkey Mountain, 15 years after premiering Emporer Jones.
Ms. Robinson's talents as a master teacher, choreographer, and cultural ambassador have led her and her Ensemble around the globe. In 1993, a tour sponsored by the United States Information Agency (USIA) to Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Germany brought critical acclaim. She has taught workshops and master classes to people of all ages and backgrounds throughout the world in venues such as neighborhood centers, conservatories and universities, bringing the spirit that dance is a universal language. She has also taught and toured her ensemble in Hawaii, Belize, East Africa, West Africa, North Africa, Singapore, Nassau, Europe and Iceland among others. In 1996, the company participated in a cultural exchange with dance artists from Nairobi, Kenya, funded by the USIA, this cultural exchange won the best overall exchange from International Sister Cities Inc., for 1996. The Ensemble performed three concerts at the Gomhouria Theatre of the Cairo Opera House in April of 1999 and in August 2000 completed a sixteen day performance tour of Rome, Sicilly and Sardinia, Italy. November 2000, the Ensemble opened the Tel Aviv - Jaffa First International Festival at the Suzanne Dellal Center amidst a ten day performance tour of Israel covering Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Rishon Lezion. As well, the Ensemble has performed at some of the most prestigious venues and dance festivals in the United States including Jacob's Pillow, American Dance Festival, The Denver Performing Arts Complex, The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Ms. Robinson has received choreography fellowships from the Colorado Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Lila Wallace Foundation, Pew Charitable Trust Fund in Washington, D.C., National Dance Repertory Program and commissions for her collaborations with artists such as Dr. Maya Angelou and poet and co-founder Schyleen Qualls-Brown. Ms. Robinson has worked with renowned composers such as: Jay Hoggard, Carman Moore, Halim El-Dabh, Ann Henry and Howard Roberts. Ms. Robinson's film and video work includes a film about Angela Davis entitled Run Sister Run, a Margie Soo Hoo Lee film with Gordon Parks. In 1977, Ms. Robinson and her Ensemble were featured in a documentary entitled African Americans at Festac , created by the United States Information Services documenting the 2nd World Black and African Festival on Art and Culture in Nigeria. Ms. Robinson also collaborated on Black Women in the Arts with Kim Fields and Stephanie Mills (1986) and the Jeffrey Osborne music video Borderline (1986). The most recent film created was a documentary entitled Pamoja: a coming together, this film captured the spirit of the cultural exchange with Kenya in 1996 and was created by Denver Center Media (DCM), a division of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). DCM is in the process of creating a documentary of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble’s 1999 Egypt tour.
In 1974, Ms. Robinson received the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, and in 1979, the Mayor's award. Ms. Robinson has been recognized in Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities, and in 1986 received the prestigious Thelma Hill Center for the Performing Arts Award (New York City) for outstanding achievement in the world of dance. She has been honored with many other awards, grants and fellowships, both locally and nationally. Most recently, her organization was honored as the Woman Owned Business of the Year by Colorado Business and Professional Women, she was honored with the lifetime achievement award from the Business and Professional Women-Aurora Chapter and she received the Oni Award from the International Black Woman's Congress recognizing her as someone who protects, defends, and enhances the general well being of African people.
Ms. Robinson received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Denver in June 1991, in 1992 she was chosen to be one of the Colorado 100 and in February 1994, she was inducted into the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame. November of 1997, Ms. Robinson was chosen along with four other "Living Legends" to participate in the project: Dance Women/Living Legends. This was an opportunity to honor the women who have made such a positive difference in the dance world for the past two to three decades. Ms. Robinson serves as the 1st Vice President of the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) whose purpose is to preserve and promote dance by people of African ancestry or origin, and to assist and increase opportunities for artists in networking, funding, performance, education, audience development, philosophical dialogue, touring and advocacy. CPRD hosted the IABD conference in Denver both in 1990 and 1999, when Harry Belafonte was keynote speaker for the conference entitled The Healing Power of Art. In 1984, Ms. Robinson joined the board of trustees for the DCPA and in 1998, her organization became an affiliate.
Ms. Robinson has served on NEA panels on Dance, Expansion Arts, Arts America, and Inter-Arts panels for the USIS. Ms. Robinson is a regular panelist for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts as well as other national task forces, boards and committees in the arts arena. In April 1999 she was appointed by President Clinton, and confirmed by the Senate to the National Council on the Arts, a 14 member panel that advises the Chairman of the NEA on agency policy and programs, and reviews and makes recommendations to the Chairman on applications for grants.
Cleo Parker Robinson continues to be dedicated to celebrating the human experience and potential through the Arts.
Life's Work, Excerpted from Answers.com Biography
The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble of Denver, Colorado,
is widely regarded as one of the top modern dance companies in the United
States, especially notable for a company far from the dance profession's
traditional coastal centers. Cleo Parker Robinson, named to the National
Council on the Arts by President Bill Clinton in 1999, has spearheaded
innovative and widely praised outreach programs designed to bring dance
to at-risk inner city youth and to involve people of all backgrounds in
dance. This impressive record of accomplishments has been attained through
the single-minded determination of a woman who has overcome numerous obstacles,
both social and personal.
Cleo Parker Robinson was born around 1948 in Denver, and grew up in the Five Points neighborhood on the city's south side. Her white mother, Martha, was disowned by her parents for marrying her African-American father, Jonathan, a struggling actor and theater technician in Denver. The household was rich in love of the arts but perpetually short on cash, and Robinson's early dance lessons came at the local YMCA. Interracial families didn't have an easy time in conservative 1950s Denver: a cross was burned on the Parker family's lawn, and at one point a white woman attacked Cleo with a broken bottle. Cleo Parker Robinson Full Biography at Answers.com. Read the full article online...>>
Cleo Parker Robinson History Makers Biography
Excerpt
Robinson began teaching dance at the University of Colorado at the age
of fifteen. She graduated from the Colorado Women's College (now The University
of Denver), having focused on dance, education and psychology. She studied
with legendary dancer and humanitarian Katherine Dunham and then founded
her own company in 1970.
The mission of this ensemble is to foster appreciation, access and the development of new audiences for dance. Robinson attempts to educate audiences about the rich heritage and ancestral gifts on which this predominately African American ensemble draws through a year-round dance school, an international summer dance institute, and national and international performances.
Robinson also seeks to ensure the arts are carried on by future generations. A program called Project Self-Discovery (PSD) demonstrates her commitment to youth outreach. PSD provides the arts to at-risk Denver youth as an alternative to gang activity, substance abuse and other tragic possibilities. The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble has performed in prisons, and some inmates have worked for the company after release.
Robinson firmly believes in the healing power of art and that dance is a universal language. Robinson was interviewed by The History Makers on June 21, 2002. Read the full article online...>>
Cleo Parker Robinson: UC Irvine Chancellor's Distinguished Fellows. Read More...>>
Cleo Parker Robinson Dance is an international, cross-cultural, dance-arts and educational institution rooted in African American traditions, and dedicated to excellence in providing instruction, performances and community programs, for intergenerational students, artists and audiences.
39 - Years of service and excellence in the arts.
55,000 - Patrons experience CPRD programs and performances each year.
23 - Percentage of participants who receive free services
20,000 - K12 students reached each year throughout the seven county Denver metro area.
Cleo Parker Robinson Biography...>>
Follow CPRD Dancer Edgar Page as he shares
his behind the scenes look at what it's
like to be a first-year dancer with the ensemble.
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