BLAC PRESENTS
CLEO PARKER ROBINSON
DANCE ENSEMBLE
SATURDAY

Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble at Douglass High School

Black Liberated Arts Center, Inc. will present the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble  on Saturday, February 23^rd at 8:00 p.m. at the Frederick A. Douglass High School Auditorium, 900 N. Martin L. King, Jr.  The 40 year old Denver based company, in the middle of its Spring tour, will travel to Crested Butte, Colorado and Seattle, Washington before the Oklahoma City appearance.

Christopher Frazier, the Oklahoma City native who graduated as Valedictorian of the Southeast High School Class of 2008, was selected by Alvin Ailey Dance Company of and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble after graduating from OU in 2012. He was featured on the cover and in a two page article in the March 2, 2012 of the Norman Transcript etc., a guide to the arts & entertainment, in a special edition, “A Dancer’s Life – Behind the scenes of Contemporary Dance Oklahoma." After talking with his mother, he decided to join the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble.

Led by its founder, executive director and choreographer Cleo Parker Robinson, the company has performed in Iceland, Singapore, Hawaii, Nassau, Belize, Israel, Egypt, Turkey and throughout Europe and Africa.  Parker Robinson holds an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Denver University (1991), an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Colorado College (2003) and an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Regis University, Denver (2008).

In 1998, President Clinton named Ms. Parker Robinson as one of two artists to be appointed to the National Council on the Arts in Washington, D. C. where she served until 2005.  She received a Kennedy Center Medal of Honor during the Center’s “Master of African American Choreographers” series.

The Dance Ensemble will arrive on February 20^th and will work with Oklahoma City 4^th, 5^th and 6^th graders from several area schools.  Selected students will perform a Welcome Dance at Douglass on the same stage as the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. 

This performance is made possible by the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project.  Major support for the National Dance Project is also provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Local support is provided by the Oklahoma Arts Council and the Ad Astra Foundation.

Tickets for the performance are on sale at Learning Tree Toys, Charlie’s Jazz, Rhythm & Blues Store and Hopkins HairCare at $20 general admission.  VIP tickets that include reserved seats and a reception are $50 and can be purchased at BLAC, Inc. offices using MasterCard, Visa, checks or cash.  Discount tickets are offered at BLAC, Inc.  For more information, call (405)524-3800.

From the press releases