NEA Logo National Endowment for the Arts
About Us
 

National Council on the Arts Members

Cleo Parker Robinson (Denver, CO)

Cleo Parker Robinson is Founder, Executive Artistic Director and Choreographer of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, a company she has led for the past 28 years. Performing in Denver, nationally, Europe, Africa, East Asia and the Caribbean, the ensemble has been featured at Jacob's Pillow, the American Dance Festival, Lincoln Center, John F. Kennedy Center, and the New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts, and most recently completed a tour to Cairo, Egypt. Among acclaimed artists with whom Ms. Robinson and her ensemble have collaborated are world re-known choreographers Donald McKayle, Talley Beatty, Katherine Dunham, Dianne McIntyre, and Eleo Pomare. Additional components of Cleo Parker Robinson dance include a year-round school, a 300-seat theater, and an outreach program for at-risk youth called Project Self-Discovery (PSD).

Ms. Robinson, a recipient of choreography fellowships from the Colorado Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Lila Wallace Foundation, Pew Charitable Trust, and the National Dance Repertory Program, has received commissions for colla-borations with Dr. Maya Angelou and Marin Alsop, conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Her extensive film and video credits include Gordon Parks' Run Sister Run. Ms. Robinson's many honors include the 1974 Colorado Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the 1979 Denver Mayor's Award, selection as one of the Colorado 100, induction into the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame, and selection as one of five participants in a project titled Dance Women/Living Legends. She currently serves as First Vice President, International Association of Blacks in Dance, and is a member of the board of trustees for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, of which Ms. Robinson's dance company is an affiliate.

Ms. Robinson is a graduate of Denver University, where she also received an honorary doctorate. She credits Rita Berger, former dancer with George Balanchine and soloist with the Metropolitan Opera, and legendary choreographer and humanitarian Katherine Dunham as being her most influential mentors.