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| Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble's World Premiere From April 1 "Breaking the Rules" showcases four works, each of which broke the rules of social acceptability. The evening’s crowning performance, featuring live music by some of Denver’s best jazz musicians, will be the world premier of the multi-media Breakin’ the Rules, created for the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble by dance innovator Chester Whitmore, through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. With the influx of black residents between 1911 and 1929, Five Points became a requisite stop for the world's premier African-American jazz musicians--including Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Josephine Baker and countless others who stopped in Denver on their way between Midwest and West Coast tours to play the clubs and performance halls. The area became well known for its after-hours jazz scene and it’s openness to all races and cultures. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble continues it’s 35th Anniversary Season, paying homage to one of the most prosperous and historic black communities in the West with Breakin’ the Rules; A Multi-Media Tribute to Five Points. Performances are Saturday April 1, Friday April 7 and Saturday April 8 at 8 p.m. & Sundays April 2 and 9 at 2 p.m. at the Kay Schomp Theatre in Denver. Born in Denver’s Five Points to artistic inter-racial parents, Cleo Parker Robinson has a life-long association with the location of this production. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance has been an integral part of the Park Hill and Five Points neighborhoods for 35 years and based in the Historic Shorter AME Church building in The Points for over 16 years. Her father, Jonathan “JP” Parker, was the Director of the Houston Fine Arts Center, which is now the Kay Schomp Theatre. Cleo is a graduate of the Colorado Women's College, the site now occupied by the Denver School of the Arts. Breakin’ the Rules celebrates Cleo and her Ensemble’s legacy in Denver’s Historic Five Points community and her Ensemble’s roots on the Houston Fine Arts Theatre stage where she and her father collaborated. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |