For the past 12 years, the TD IRIE Music Festival has built a great reputation for showcasing music and dance from the African-Canadian/Caribbean diaspora. And while reggae music is the backbone of the festival, dance continues to be an integral component. Along with this year’s showcase is a special dance workshop open to the public.
One of the most striking features of Cleo Parker Robinson’s outreach program for problem adolescents is the way it describes its target demographic.
I was very fortunate to be given lots of opportunities when I was young, she says. But I could have been one of these children.
Born in 1948, Cleo Parker Robinson was the child of a struggling black actor and a white mother whose parents thwarted their daughter’s dreams of becoming a professional musician. She had to deal with racism on every side, recalls Robinson.
Seventeen years ago dancers/choreographers, BaKari E. Lindsay and Charmaine Headley, along with two collaborators, Junia Mason and Mosa Neshama co-founded COBA, the Collective of Black Artists in Toronto.
