Bumbershoot
This time around, the fest gets funky

By Lynn Jacobson
Times assistant A&E editor

PEDRO PEREZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES, 2003 Glen Takamura does a head spin at the CenterCircleSpin at Bumbershoot last year. The lineup in Fisher Pavilion culminates at 6:30 Monday night in the B-Boy Battle Finals.

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Bumbershoot has never been the ideal venue for viewing serious ballet or modern dance. Audiences are typically restless, rustling their programs, looking for the start time of the next big band that's playing.

Festival programmers have obviously gotten wise to the situation, and this year's emphasis is on accessible, interactive dance forms such as breakdancing, tap and other popular styles.

The CenterCircleSpin area in Fisher Pavilion will jump and jive all weekend. The lineup includes "poppin' and lockin' " exhibitions, breakdancing workshops, open dance jams and competitions. It culminates Monday afternoon at 4:15 p.m. in the B-Boy Battle Finals — a can-you-top-this?-style contest between crews of head-spinning, hand-walking, rhythm-busting dance maniacs.

The Bagley Wright Theatre scene will be more genteel — but just barely. Tamango's Urban Tap, the dance headliner, brings its high-energy blend of world percussion and movement from New York City at 8 p.m. tomorrow and 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Bumbershoot dance preview Bumbershoot, today-Monday, Seattle Center; 206-281-7788 or www.bumbershoot.org.

And Spectrum, a Seattle-based, contemporary dance company, presents an amalgam of ethnic and popular styles called "Fado, Hip-Hop & the Blues" at 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Fans of the avant-garde shouldn't give up on Bumbershoot, though. On the Boards is curating a series of four performances by local troupes featured this year on its Northwest New Works program. Tomorrow at 1 p.m., Monster Squad explores themes of momentum and communication, while Cori Caulfield draws character portraits in movement Sunday at 6:30 p.m., The Three Yells examines jealousy in a multimedia performance, followed by Mary Sheldon Scott/Jarrad Powell Performance in a work-in-progress, all at the Bagley Wright Theatre.

Lynn Jacobson: 206-464-2714 or ljacobson@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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