The sold-out crowd at Saturday night’s Dancing with the Denver Stars, a benefit for the not-for-profit Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, included Denver’s new police chief, Robert White.
White was there with Mayor Michael Hancock, whose wife, Mary Louise Lee, opened the program by singing the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
“I’m very excited to be coming to Denver,” White told The Denver Post during the social hour that preceded dinner at the Renaissance Denver Hotel. “But more importantly, so is my wife.”
This was the second year of the dance showcase that pairs civic leaders with members of CPRD for a highly entertaining program. Tara Labrie, national president of Jack and Jill of America; Chuck Morris, president of AEG Live Rocky Mountain; former University of Colorado quarterback Charles “CJ” Johnson; attorney Damon Barry and his wife, Healther, director of business affairs and concessionaire relations at Denver International Airport; and Denver Post editor Greg Moore and his wife, Nina Henderson Moore, were among those showing off their best moves in dance styles that ranged from waltz and hip-hop to salsa and Latin jazz.
Dancing with the Denver Stars also marked the 41st anniversary of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, which began as a Model Cities project in 1970 and has grown to become an international example of artistry and social responsibility.
The money raised at the event chaired by Dr. Donna Lynne, president of Kaiser Permanente Colorado, and Richard Lewis, owner of RTL Networks, goes to CPRD-sponsored programs that give at-risk youth a chance to build social, academic, personal and job-readiness skills.
