The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) was an idea hatched in 1988 by some of the country’s leading dance companies and artists to preserve and promote dance by people of African ancestry.

The five IABD founders (Robinson is second from the right). Courtesy photo

Denver’s own Cleo Parker Robinson was one of the five founders of IABD who helped form and shape it into a resource for Black administrators, artists, choreographers, dance companies, directors, students, and teachers.

Now, 35 years later, the IABD has been recognized by President Biden with the 2023 National Medal of the Arts, which is the nation’s highest award in the arts. Robinson attended the March 21 ceremony at the White House where IABD President Denise Saunders Thompson accepted the award.

The National Medal of Arts is awarded annually to individuals or groups who are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States. This year’s recipients include:

Judith Francisca Baca
Fred Eychaner
Jose Feliciano
Mindy Kaling
Gladys Night
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Antonio Martorell-Cardona
Joan Shigekawa
Vera Wang
The Billie Holiday Theatre
The International Association of Blacks in Dance

In 1988, Joan Myers Brown of The Philadelphia Dance Company, Philadanco, launched the first International Conference on Black Dance Companies with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts. Eighty professionals attended the conference in Philadelphia. Two years later, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance hosted the second conference in Denver where attendees chose to form an unincorporated association, which was formalized in 1991 as the International Association of Blacks in Dance.

Among IABD’s efforts is an annual Conference and Festival, which draws up to 1,000 participants from around the world. Additionally, the group has established a national scholarship-training program for dancers, facilitates a nationwide multi-company audition, and maintains archives at museums in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. For more information, visit the IABD website.