Dance troupe, jazz orchestra to pay tribute to burned churches in 'Sacred Spaces'

A special, one-day-only presentation on Sunday will combine live jazz and soulful choreography at Detroit’s Music Hall.

Legendary dance troupe Cleo Parker Robinson Dance (CPRD) and the prestigious New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) will join forces to present “Sacred Spaces,” inspired by the burning of three Black churches in Opelousas, Louisiana, in spring 2019.

“We were talking to (a presenter) in New Orleans,” said multi-award winner Cleo Parker Robinson, “and she began to talk about how she had an idea that it would be important to really bring attention to the burning of churches that were happening in sacred spaces, and especially in her community. And she had no idea that our church had allegedly been burned by the Klan. So she brought an idea about exposing what happened in the area, and I said, ‘I’d like to get a grant and see if we can bring some more awareness and consciousness, and create a collaboration with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.’ ”

Parker Robinson said she has had other experiences feeling unsafe in sacred spaces, as well.

“I had toured the company in lots of places around the world,” she said. “I remember being in Turkey and going into a mosque, taking my company there, and maybe a month later, it was bombed. And I remember how frightening that was, to think that we’d be praying and at that time, people would be losing their lives.

“And the same with taking the company to Israel at that time. We were there and all over, to Jerusalem and sacred spaces. My driver, going into Jerusalem, he said, ‘I’m going to the most sacred space, but if I turned the corner here, we don’t want to go into this area because we could be killed.’ ”

Parker Robinson had a difficult time beginning work on the piece, because she had just lost her husband of 51 years.

“It was like a dirge,” she said. “I didn’t realize the effect that it had on my body. So when I went in to teach the class, I couldn’t even move. It let me know what happens to people when they experience something traumatic, that movement is not what you can do, and so I started creating the work with understanding the burden of loss in a very different way. But two girls came in, and I saw what they had gone through the night before, watching their mother and father crying about the burning of this church. They inspired me so much, and I got up and I started moving, and the power of the moment kept taking me to the next place. It was pretty, pretty phenomenal.”

Grammy winner Adonis Rose, NOJO artistic director, said “Sacred Spaces” is the first full suite of music he has composed for the orchestra, and the group's first collaboration with a dance organization. He said writing the music was emotionally difficult.

“It’s a very tragic story,” he said. “But it’s also a story of people being resilient. It was compelling, and it was my first time actually writing a piece that was based on a narrative, with a concept and a story from beginning to end. We went to the Opelousas area and met with the pastors and the people from the congregations and just heard what they had to say about finding their churches were burned, figuring out what they were going to do in terms of being able to gather and worship, and then how they were going to rebuild the churches. It helped me a lot when I was composing the piece.”

Two CPRD dancers, Ralaya Goshea and Michael Battle, hail from Detroit and will be returning home for the performance. Goshea, a 2003 Detroit School of Arts graduate, portrays the pastor’s wife in the show, and shows off her singing talent.

“Detroit got me ready for the world, and all the struggle and all of the triumphs,” Goshea said. “Being a wife and mother, playing the role that I’m playing, as a Black woman, I think that I’m getting all of the viewers ready for what happens and the silver lining that we can see for the future.”

Rose said working on “Sacred Spaces” has been a cathartic experience.

“This piece has been great for me in so many ways,” he said. “I hope that when people come out and see it, they feel the love and the resilience and the strength of the partnership between our organizations.”

"Sacred Spaces" will be performed once only, at 3 p.m. Sunday at Detroit's Music Hall, 350 Madison St. Tickets start at $30 and can be purchased at .musichall.org. Music Hall is also running a special "buy two, get two free" sale for those who call the box office directly at 313-887-8501.

5 things to do this weekend: Youmacom, Run of the Dead and 'Great American Trailer Park'

Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Cleo Parker Robinson, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra to perform in Detroit