Robinson, Cleo Parker

Impact on the world

Founded what became the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble in Denver in 1970 after studying with Katherine Dunham and at Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theatre of Harlem, both already profiled in this collection, building an institution that today encompasses a professional ensemble, a second company, youth ensembles, an academy of dance, an international summer dance institute, and a 240-seat theatre bearing her name; she received the Kennedy Center Medal of Honor in 2005 as part of the Center's 'Masters of African American Choreographers' series and was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the National Council on the Arts in 1999.

Life & background

Born in Denver in 1948 to a Black father who may have been the city's first paid African American actor and a white mother who had been a child prodigy French horn player, Robinson grew up in an interracial family that faced open hostility, including being followed by police and verbally harassed for her parents' marriage; at age ten she nearly died when her kidneys failed and a segregated Dallas hospital delayed her admission long enough to cause heart failure, after which a doctor told her she would remain bedridden for life, a prognosis she refused to accept, throwing herself into dance instead as a way of reclaiming both her body and her sense of possibility. She began teaching university-level dance classes at the University of Colorado at just 15, graduated from Colorado Women's College, now part of the University of Denver, studying dance, education, and psychology, and in 1968 traveled to New York to study under Arthur Mitchell, whose work directly inspired her to consider founding her own company; she also trained with Katherine Dunham and drew influence from Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and Eleo Pomare. After running the dance program at Denver's Model Cities Cultural Center, she founded her own school and performance ensemble in 1970, building it over more than five decades into a major artistic institution recognized by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times and toured throughout Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa; one of her notable collaborations, 'Lush Life,' paired jazz, poetry, and dance with poet Maya Angelou. She founded Project Self-Discovery, a program using dance as an alternative to gang activity and substance abuse for at-risk Denver youth, and has brought performances directly into prisons, with some formerly incarcerated participants going on to work for the company after their release; she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1989 and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2021, continuing to choreograph new work into her seventies, including a 2021 collaboration with jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves and a reimagined production of 'The Firebird' staged in 2023.

Sources

1. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance official website; The HistoryMakers; Denver Public Library Special Collections; Colorado Women's Hall of Fame; University of Colorado Boulder