The Department of Dance will host a guest artist during the month of February. On Feb. 28, at 11:30 a.m.-12:50 p.m. Cleo Parker Robinson, founder of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance in Boulder, Colorado, will hold a master class for intermediate/advanced dancers followed by an artist talk/discussion on "Race and Gender in the Dance World" from 1-2:20 p.m.

• 11:30 a.m.: Open rehearsal in the Jean and Wells Hobler Center for the Arts, Loretto-Hilton Center
• 1-2:20 p.m.: Conversation: "Race and Gender in the Dance World," Gary Hubler Dance Lounge, Loretto-Hilton Center

Cleo Parker Robinson is founder, artistic director and choreographer of the 40+ year-old Denver-based artistic institution, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. She leads a professional dance Ensemble, Youth Ensemble, a School of Dance, an International Summer Dance Institute, a 300 seat theatre that bears her name, and a myriad of community outreach programs.

In 2005, Ms. Parker Robinson received a Kennedy Center Medal of Honor during the Center’s “Masters of African American Choreographers” series. Ms. Robinson received the first-ever Peaceful Heart Award from Mile-Hi Church, and was honored by the Colorado Gospel Hall of Fame, and the Metro State College Plain & Fancy Ball.

In 2006, she received the “Jill” Award from the South Suburban Denver Chapter of Jack & Jill of America, Inc., honoring her work with young people. Also in 2006, Ms. Parker Robinson was honored as a “Pioneer In Black Dance” by the Dynamic Dance Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2007, she received the Huntington’s Disease of America Distinguished Leadership Award., the “Fairfax B. Holmes Community Award” from The Denver Links, Inc. and the “Unsung Heroes Mountain Award” from African American Leadership Institute.

In 2008, she was awarded the President’s Award of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance, the Civil Rights Award of the Anti-Defamation League, and the Civil Rights Medallion of the Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professorship program.” -biography from cleoparkerdance.org