Cleo Parker Robinson has helped anchor Denver’s progressive dance community for decades, staging and choreographing new works and reaching out to the community with an eye toward youth.
As her nationally respected company enters its 39th year and prepares for this weekend’s “Still Breakin’ the Rules,” we asked Robinson about the Denver premiere of Donald McKayle’s classic “Games.” She also offered her thoughts on her upcoming trip to Paris to teach the works of mentor Katherine Dunham, and the 21st Annual International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, which takes place in Denver next year from Jan. 29-Feb. 1.
Q: I know the title of this weekend’s program is an update of “Breakin’ the Rules,” which was your 2006 tribute to the Five Points Neighborhood. What can people expect from this incarnation?
A: We’ve got Christopher Huggins’ “Bolero,” with Ravel’s music, a re-staging of “Breakin’ the Rules” and the Denver premiere of “Games.”
Q: Can you tell me about your relationship with “Games,” which Donald McKayle choreographed nearly 60 years ago?
A: I saw it somewhat early on when Donny set “Games” on Alvin Ailey’s company, maybe 30 years ago. I was so moved by the fact that every character and every experience felt so real, as if I was experiencing it as a child. I remember the songs that were in “Games” that I had sung and we had played as kids, and I just thought, “God, that connection to being a child is so universal.”
Q: How would you describe the piece to someone who’s never seen it?
A: It’s a journey through playfulness and sometimes anger, looking at how kind and cruel children can be to one another, and how the world is to them. The dancers are the score, with male and female singing. The characters are three women and four men, and it ends in a way that sort of surprises the audience, because we don’t always expect a powerful ending.
Q: McKayle is one of several dance legends you’ve worked with over the years. Will we see him in Denver again soon?
A: Actually, Donny will be here during the International Association of Blacks in Dance in January and February, giving master classes and lectures and participating in panels and award dinners.
Q: Your company has performed more of his pieces than any other, including “Games” at the American Dance Festival this summer. What about his work attracts you?
A: You realize the kind of passion he had for humanity from a very young age. He made me more attracted to ballets that were transforming, that had a place that started and ended and the choreographer knew where he wanted to go. So when I started choreographing, I knew I loved the theatrical parts.
Q: What can we expect from your company this year?
A: We were given a grant from New England Foundation for the Arts to tour 13 cities, so we’ll be doing that. Every nine years I host the Blacks in Dance conference, so that’s coming, and we are celebrating Katherine Dunham’s 100 years (the late dancer, author and activist would have been 100 next summer) so I’m going to Paris to teach her work. And of course, we’re constantly trying to create stronger partnerships with the community and grow our audience.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
