About Cleo Torres

Cleo Torres has been a dancer since she could first stand, from ballet classes her mother hoped would tire her out (spoiler: they didn’t) to cumbias and norteño polkas at family gatherings and two-step and waltzes at a small-town bar with her parents. She has designed and constructed clothing and costumes for almost as long, ever since her elders decided she could be trusted with a needle and scissors.

In the more than four decades since those beginnings, Cleo Torres has explored dozens of dance styles and expanded her repertoire to related movement disciplines. She took her first pole classes in spring 2021 and made her burlesque debut at the Roughrider Iron & Ink Expo in Fargo that fall. She learned to walk (and dance) on stilts that same year thanks to a grant from Heart of the Beast to participate in Minneapolis’ Día de los los muertos parade. Her drag alter ego, Félix Días, has been gracing Twin Cities stages since 2022.

She (and Félix) has performed with and served as crew for the Experteasers, the Rose Academy of Burlesque, Pole Art/Studio 33, TC New Revue, TC Cabaret, Rox Hard Productions, the Bare Book Club, Worshipped, Twisted Rose Productions, Secret Saturday, Dragged Out’s Dragged In audition show, Karaoke After Dark at Minnesota Fringe, Art Shanties, Hijinks Stilts, Upstanding Stilts, Good Camel Comedy Theatre, Festival de las calaveras, and the Cedar Cultural Center Volunteer Talent Show.

She makes or modifies most of her own costumes, and has worked on costumes for the Experteasers and Hijinks Stilts. She accepts costume commissions.

You can catch her regularly at TC Cabaret shows as a member of the troupe, in parades and at festivals as part of Hijinks Stilts, leading dance fitness classes at Lake Harriet Upper though MPS community ed, and working as a House Manager at the Cedar Cultural Center.

Truly never hard to find because she’s always front and center: this is Cleo Torres.