Tuesday was more than a groundbreaking for Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. It was a “ground blessing.”

Denver’s iconic and internationally recognized 53-year-old dance theater company is moving forward with a dream at least five years in the making. Tuesday, the company (finally) announced the coming addition of a new, 25,000 square foot, four-level wing that will connect to the historic dance theater and ensure the company’s presence in Denver’s Five Points for decades to come.

The new addition, which is targeted for a March 2025 opening at 119 Park Avenue West, will be called “The Cleo Parker Robinson Center for the Healing Arts.” It is an $20 million endeavor, of which about 75 percent has been raised. Plans call for:

• A new garden-level, 240-seat performance venue in addition to updates to the antiquated, 240-seat mainstage theater that is home to more than 30 area nonprofit performing groups.

• Four new movement studios, four activity rooms, dressing rooms, exercise facilities, a café and a shared office space for resident partners.

• Expanded programming to include additional educational outreach that will touch up to 15,000 students a year from 80 area schools, as well as intriguing new ideological and practical forays into wellness, health and civic engagement.

The pillar of CRPD will remain its core modern dance ensemble; a second company called Cleo II (both of which tour nationally and internationally); an expanded, year-round Academy of Dance; and two youth ensembles.

The new facility is expected to create another 36 full-time, part-time and contracted jobs.

Tuesday’s festivities were accompanied by joyous music, dance, percussion, prayers and speeches, including from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Lt. Gov. Diane Primavera.

Cleo Parker Robinson, who grew up in East Denver performing as an actor with her father at the shuttered Bonfils Theatre (now Tattered Cover Book Store), founded CPRD in 1972 with her late husband, Tom Robinson, in the belief that the language of dance transcends the boundaries of culture. Cleo Parker Robinson, who has been always driven to blend social justice and global cultural education, is easily Denver’s most known and renowned dancer.

Gary Steuer, CEO of the Bonfils Stanton Foundation, called CPRD one of the five foundational Black dance companies in the U.S.

That company’s executive director is the founders’ son, Malik Robinson, who said the new facility will allow CPRD to continue its legacy of bringing dance into the lives of diverse people for perhaps the next 100 years.

“That legacy did not start with Cleo Parker Robinson, but it has certainly been propelled by her brilliance and inspiring vision,” he said. “It’s a legacy that draws from many traditions. I do not claim to have ownership over that legacy. However, I do have a great deal of fidelity to ensuring it continues for generations to come.”

Karen McNeil-Miller, president and CEO of Colorado Health Foundation, said the new wing will create a place of belonging, gathering and welcoming. And the new wellness center will be an important part of that.

“Healing generates health in the community because it provides a respite … from the daily struggles that people living on low incomes have in their everyday lives,” she said.

Cleo Parker Robinson moved her company into the now 98-year-old former Shorter AME Church in 1988. This newly announced addition, designed by Fentress Architects, will be a highly transparent glass-paneled structure that will stand in stark contrast to the historic church as a statement of intentional inclusion, an embrace of difference and a celebration of the intersection of the old and new.

CPRD launched its first-ever capital campaign a year ago, bolstered by $4 million in revitalization funds from the state’s arts council, Colorado Creative Industries. It also has received funding from the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and lots of other private and public sources.

Now, to raise that remaining $5 million. “You have done the impossible,” architect Curt Fentress told Malik Robinson, “and you’ve still got more to do.”

More on the Bobby G Awards

Last week’s 10th Bobby G Awards – a celebration of achievements in high-school theater – marked the retirement of 20-year Denver Center for the Performing Arts employee Claudia Carson, who ran the program that now has engaged about 70,000 Colorado high school kids and given nearly 3,000 of those the chance to perform on the Buell Theatre stage. Officially called the DCPA’s education program manager, much of Carson’s previous life was spent as a stage manager, easily the most under-recognized act of backstage heroism in all of theater.

A new award category was added this year to recognize outstanding achievement in stage management and, appropriately enough, it has been named in Carson’s honor. The first winner of the Carson Award went to student Amelia Mindlin-Leitner, stage manager of Cherry Creek High School’s “Man of La Mancha.”

And here’s a cool side note from this year’s awards: You may have read here that Lakewood High School won a leading five Bobby G Awards, including Outstanding Musical, for its production of “Something Rotten” – which almost never happened. That’s because when a professional local theater like BDT Stage in Boulder has a production scheduled, the rights to any other local staging within 60 miles (including, apparently, high-school shows) are routinely yanked by national licensors. But BDT Producing Artistic Director Seamus McDonough stepped in and assured the licensing company that it was A-OK with him for Lakewood to stage its own production, and the show went on.

“Thank God they were so generous and they let us do it,” said retiring Lakewood High School Director Tami LoSasso. “This was a hard-fought show, and all the kids wanted to do it so badly, so it took on that much more meaning for them because they knew it was a gift from BDT Stage for us to get to do it at all.”

For his part, the laid-back, good-karma McDonough said only, “I’m so happy to hear that they won. That’s fantastic and far too sweet and entirely unnecessary for her to say.”  You can read our full report from the Bobby G Awards here.

The UMS creates Artist Impact Award  

The Underground Music Showcase, returning to South Broadway for its 23rd year July 28-30, has created an annual Impact Artist award that includes headlining a “UMS Impact Show.” The honoree is Denver-based pop artist N3ptune “not only because his music captivates audiences, but his powerful focus on mental wellness, BIPOC and queer advocacy, commitment to healthy masculinity and sober curiosity,” the UMS said in a statement. This year’s UMS headliners will be Jamila Woods, Emmit Fenn and Crumb.

Three shows, three photos

So last weekend I did something I haven’t done in years: I went to three concerts in three nights – all of which you might have read about first in last week’s Denver Gazette. Here’s a representative photo from each:

• Friday, Fruit Bats: Frontman Eric D Johnson said his sold-out show at the Ogden Theatre (estimated 1,600) was the largest headliner crowd in his project’s 25-year history.

• Saturday: Otis Taylor, who received his diploma last week, 57 years after being kicked out of Manual High School for refusing to cut his hair, played two sizzling shows at Dazzle.

• Sunday: The Violent Femmes wrapped their 40th anniversary nostalgia tour by playing their entire debut record (and then about 15 more songs for good measure) at Levitt Pavilion.