The living dance legend Cleo Parker Robinson grew up as a Black woman in the segregated South of the United States. Her introduction to Black dance and music brought her in contact with artistic legends like Maya Angelou, Duke Ellington, and Katherine Dunham, and she developed a legendary career as a choreographer and director in Denver, Colorado, as opposed to a traditional United States arts capital on the coasts. Known for her tireless optimism and good spirit, she spoke to Dance ICONS, Inc. about some of the more challenging sides of her fabled career.

Read the Full Interview with CLEO PARKER ROBINSON 

ICONS INSPIRE is a monthly digital portrait and a one-on-one interview with a groundbreaking choreographer. Get the insider point of view on an important dancemaker's creative process, background, and training to inspire, provoke and challenge your intellectual repertoire.

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Welcome to our learning program! Here is information about the ICONS Choreographic Institute at ATLAS in partnership with the Atlas Performing Arts Center here in Washington, DC, USA -- a long-needed platform that offers a 9-month long artistic residency with structured shared learning and experimental creative laboratory -- an advanced professional development program with mentorship for emerging choreographers. More details are available here. 

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• WHO INSPIRES YOU AND WHY?
  Your Answer?...CLICK HERE

Your responses...

• Yako O. - Seeing myself in mirror. I look at the person and think about how to move her. What movement will look interesting on her...
• Sean H. - I found recent inspiration in the work of Cari Ann Shim Sham*, whose work expands ideas of what is possible in the world of performance. Using video and projection, she helps create worlds that are vivid and refreshingly unique.
• Vlad A. - I think what inspires me mostly is not so much the PERSON, but the WORK. Sometimes, I see a wonderful piece by an unknown choreographer and I think it is great that the work carries a name and not the other way around.

Click here to read more selected answers

Check out our regular postings of cross genre works and enjoy interesting selection of topics

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