|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
“Wow! Wow! Wow!”Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble Exposes CDC, CHSAZZ, and Other Students to Various Dances, Follow-up Performance this Friday By Briana Lucero On the morning of Tuesday, October 27 th, Ms. Cleo Parker Robinson shouted “Wow! Wow! Wow,” to rouse up nearly a hundred dance students in the Eugene Hanson Auditorium. Beyond getting student attention, Robinson and the rest of the CPRDE (Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble), a professional dance group, wowed the audience by exposing them to various dance styles. But this visit was about much more than style. “The way we learn to honor each other is to expose culture to each other,” said Robinson to CHS students. “Respect, knowledge is everything. Follow your dream.” For Robinson, her dream of using dance to connect cultures is personal and began formulating long ago. According to her biography, Robinson was born in 1948 and grew up in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver, CO on the city’s south side. Her white mother, Martha, was disowned by her parents for marrying her African-American father, Jonathan, a struggling actor and theater technician. Coming from a family strong on love, short on money, and victimized by racial prejudice, as a child Robinson found dance as a personal outlet through lessons at the local YMCA. By age 21, Robinson founded the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble and serves to this day as its Executive Artistic Director. The Ensemble is widely regarded as one of the top modern dance company and for nearly 40 years, Robinson has been teaching dance to bring people of all backgrounds together, changing the lives of individuals, one student at a time. Edgar Page, who performed for the CPRDE on Tuesday, is in his first season as a member of the group. As an adolescent in Detroit, MI, he disliked P.E. class and, like many teenagers, had to make a decision: take sports or a dance class. He chose dance “because [he] couldn’t take another year of jumping jacks.” Now in his 20’s, Page plans to continue dancing into his mid-to-late 30’s “unless [he gets] married, has 3.5 children, a family car, and a weekend car.” Just as Robinson mentored Page, he and the other CPRDE members are inspiring students across the nation and world to learn about dance. The group has been visiting Coronado for 20 years. On Monday CHSAZZ, CDC, and Dance 2 and 3 got a chance to learn from the CPRDE and even performed. Since our advanced dance classes had only girls on Monday, the lady Dons got to learn the “Warrior Dance,” often performed by boys. After bringing out her inner warrior, Angelica Romero (12) noted that “dance is a form of releasing stress it makes me happy and brings out the best in me.” She has danced since she was a freshman. Students were also exposed to other forms of dance this week. At Tuesday’s assembly, CPRDE members asked some students to come on-stage to learn a few moves from each type of dance, then perform them for the audience. Ballet is the opposite of Modern Dance that in modern dance, dancers are often barefooted and “more angular.” Tap dance an American Art form, referred to as “hoofing” by Robinson. African dance started in the western region of Africa and Jazz dance has been influenced by African American culture. On Friday night the CPRDE will perform their show “Rivers of Hope” at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts at 8pm. For more information, go to the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. |
|
|
|
Have a suggestion, comment, or question? |
|
