When Cleo Parker Robinson , arguably the most significant dance figure ever to come out of the state of Colorado, was asked to perform a nearly 10-minute solo piece at this weekend’s Presenting Denver Dance Festival , “I thought that they had lost their minds,” she said with a laugh.

“They” were festival Artistic Director Marisa Hollingsworth and prominent Denver choreographer Christopher Page-Sanders, who developed a new piece called “The Love We Carry” for Robinson to perform in honor of her late husband, Tom Robinson . He was an adoring spouse and logical math teacher who helped his wife to establish the dance company that since 1970 has been an anchor of Black culture in the Rocky Mountain region.

But Cleo Parker Robinson is 77 years old. And while she has played the title char

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