Expanding Access to Dance at Historic Denver Site

In 1925, the Shorter African Methodist Episcopal Church in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood was destroyed in a fire, allegedly as a result of arson by the Ku Klux Klan. Within the next year, the church’s parishioners pooled together resources and rebuilt on the same site an architecturally Moorish-style church that would serve the Five Points community for over a half-century—before becoming home to Cleo Parker Robinson Dance (CPRD) in 1988. 

In 2024, CPRD carried forward the history of the site once more by breaking ground on a modern, three-level expansion—to be named the Cleo Parker Robinson Center for the Healing Arts—that will double the size of the CPRD home with 25,000 square feet for performance space, dance studios, and gathering areas for partner organizations and community members. Once complete, it will be the first time in the organization’s 54-year history that the organization has a newly built theater.

Coming out of both the civil rights and Black arts movements of the 1960s, Cleo Parker Robinson says she founded the dance company with the belief that dance has the power to transcend divisions of culture, class, and age. Not only has CPRD served as a haven for Black artists and dancers in the Rocky Mountain region, but it has also gained wide acclaim for its international touring—guided by Parker Robinson’s visionary (and recently National Medal of the Arts–winning) leadership.  

CPRD is also one of the founding organizational members of the International Association of Blacks in Dance, which provides an array of network resources for companies around the world while engaging in dialogue around issues that affect the Black dance community. 

At the center’s groundbreaking in May, when asked by Colorado Public Media what people should expect when the expansion is complete, Parker Robinson said, “This Rocky Mountain soul brings a sense of peace and love and harmony and respect for all people everywhere—and I think that’s what they’re going to experience.” 

CPRD President and CEO Malik Robinson (who is Parker Robinson’s son) added, “This is a monumental moment in the 54-year history of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. We honor those who have gone before, we extend our deepest appreciation to those who are helping to bring years of work to fruition, and we hold great pride in those generations who will carry this legacy forward.” 

Construction on the new center is expected to take about 17 months with the new expansion anticipated to open in 2025. Staffing capabilities to operate the new center were supported by a grant from Mellon in 2023 that built on an initial grant to CPRD in 2020.