LAFAYETTE, La. (press release) – Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra will perform Sacred Spaces? at the Heymann Center in Lafayette at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2025. The performance tells the story of the 2019 arson of three Black Baptist churches. Sacred Spaces? is a story of reconciliation and redemption portrayed through spoken word, new music, stark pictures and the choreography.
“They’ve burned our churches,” will be the opening line at the Louisiana premiere performance about the arson of St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church, and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in St. Landry Parish.
Jackie Lyle, executive director at the Performing Arts Serving Acadiana (PASA), said she is a firm believer that challenging stories can be uniquely shared through performing arts. After reading the news accounts of the arson attacks, she drafted a sketch of a performance that would include dance and music. Lyle approached the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company, the accomplished artistic institution based in Denver, Colorado, as well as the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, who both seized the chance to be a part of the project.
The Sacred Spaces? team arrived in Acadiana in June 2022 for a powerful gathering of congregants and others at St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church in Port Barre. According to Lyle, more than two emotional hours of reflection, questioning and sharing informed the new choreography and music. Retired University of Louisiana at Lafayette professor Joe Riehl transcribed the discussion word for word. His documentation is incorporated into the performance as spoken word.
Working with local dancers in the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s dance studio, Cleo Parker Robinson and her assistant artistic director, Winnifred Harris, laid out the initial movement of Sacred Spaces? and Adonis Rose, artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, composed the music.
When acclaimed Louisiana photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery learned of the project, she offered images that she had captured of the burned churches in the earliest days after the fires and they have been incorporated into the staging of Sacred Spaces?
“We are so grateful that our vision was embraced by the artists, the congregations and the pastors of the churches, as well as our artistic community, grant givers and so many others,” says PASA executive director Jackie Lyle. “Creating new work—especially the kind that reflects the shocking nature of this particular history—is risky. With great respect for the church communities and the artists, we accomplished our goal to put this project on stage”.
In addition to the public performance on Jan. 29, a variety of events that are open to the public will take place, beginning with an opening reception on Sunday, Jan. 26 at Warehouse 535 in Lafayette. There will also be artist talks, hands-on music activities, and movement and dance activities. While participation in these community events is free, registration is required. Information available here. pasaonline.org.
A daytime performance for eighth grade students in Lafayette Parish public schools will take place on the morning of Jan. 29. PASA’s daytime performances for students are supported by a generous grant from Love Our Schools.
Sacred Spaces? had its world premiere in Sept. 2022 in Denver, CO, where Cleo Parker Robinson Dance is based, and has been performed in many US cities. The project has received support from the New England Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, South Arts, ArtsForward, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Corporate sponsors include the Lafayette Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Lee Michaels, City Club at River Ranch, Kinchen Funeral Home, Christa and Chip Billeaud, and the Louisiana Lottery.
PASA is supported by an operational grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council, and an External Agencies Funding Program grant, sponsored by Lafayette Consolidated Government and administered by the Acadiana Center for the Arts.
Cleo Parker Robinson is founder, artistic director and choreographer of the 50-year-old Denver-based artistic institution, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. She leads a professional dance Ensemble, Youth and Junior Youth Ensembles, a Dance Academy, an International Summer Dance Institute, a 240-seat theatre that bears her name, and a myriad of community outreach programs. Her philosophy of “One Spirit, Many Voices” is reflected in all she does, and is the vision she brings to everyone she meets, everywhere she goes.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton appointed Ms. Parker Robinson to the National Council on the Arts where she served until 2005 as one of the two appointed members of the fourteen-member council in Washington D.C. In 2005, Ms. Parker Robinson received a Kennedy Center Medal of Honor during the Center’s “Masters of African American Choreographers” series. In 2021, Ms. Parker Robinson and her fellow co-founders of the International Association of Blacks in Dance received the National Medal of Arts from President Joe Biden.
A master teacher/choreographer and cultural ambassador, she has taught and performed with her Ensemble around the world, touching people of all ages and backgrounds who have participated in Ms. Parker Robinson’s workshops and master classes at conservatories, universities and neighborhood dance centers.
Adonis Rose is a Grammy-award-winning artist, composer, educator, and producer from the city of New Orleans, LA. He has played and recorded with the biggest names in Jazz, including Terence Blanchard, Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Harry Connick, Jr., Nnenna Freelon, Kurt Elling, and Wynton Marsalis, and has performed on the most renowned stages in the world.
Rose was appointed to the position of artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra in 2017. He has been instrumental in the organization’s success by developing educational and community programs, leading performances, and developing partnerships associated with The Jazz Market, a 350-seat performance venue in New Orleans’ Central City neighborhood which is home to the orchestra. He serves as the New Orleans Music and Culture Curator for JazzAscona in Switzerland and was recently named the executive director of the NOCCA Foundation.
Performing Arts Serving Acadiana offers performing arts entertainment, focusing on dance, theater, and classical music, with occasional forays into other genres. PASA also delivers performing arts activities—master classes, workshops, lecture demonstrations and other offerings—in a variety of locations in the Acadiana area.
