Cleo Parker Robinson opens 25,000 square foot expansion – Center for Healing Arts
This has been a very good week for Denver dance icon Cleo Parker Robinson. On Monday, APAP – The Association of Performing Arts Professionals presented Cleo with their Award of Merit. And Cleo is back in town for the Grand Opening of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Center for the Healing Arts. The 25,000 square foot state-of-the-art expansion sits right next to the dance company’s home for the past quarter century, the Historic Shorter AME Church in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood at the corner of Park Avenue and Washington Street.
Robinson said the design team drew ideas from the New York-based Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and other spaces around the country. “People in New York really have begun to respect what goes on right here. And the same way with California, but we're global. This is where we are, and we never left (Five Points) in our hearts. Never, no matter where we moved, how we moved through the world, and representing Denver and the black community and the whole community and the dance community, everyone. I think people are really proud. They say this is ours. And that's what we want to have happen, every age, every background, because the world needs (this space). I mean, we really, we get a little polarized, even in the artistry. I mean, I want people to create and be innovative. So who knows what these young people are going to come up with?
CEO of the CPRDCHA, Malik Robinson, is most excited about the educational opportunities of the new addition, that “kisses” the Historic Shorter space. “In the historic building, we already have about 30 other performing arts groups that use that space. The whole idea was also for them to create, because there's really a dearth of space in the city for groups to test ideas and have a proper stage for them to do it. With the expansion, not only can we accommodate more of really what makes the city vibrant with our students, we're sitting in a theater with telescopic retractable seating that draws back and opens it up to a flexible dance studio that can accommodate, probably, 100 students or more. The academy is an intergenerational dance school, so we have lots of classes for young people, but then also we have a degree program in partnership with Metropolitan State University. We're moving now into dance studios that have been properly designed for movement.”
Later this spring, the Denver Jazz Fest will be using the space for some of its performances.
Details on grand opening events and classes can be found at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Center for the Healing Arts.
Photography credit: Weston Wilkins, Radio Multimedia Producer
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