Art on the Fly

I first heard about the Seattle International Dance Festival when I started writing about family arts events. At the time, I couldn’t afford tickets for the whole family, and I didn’t think that I could convince anyone I was qualified it to review it as a “real” arts critic. But the free Art on the Fly event for families seemed like a no-brainer. But year after year, something always came up. Then this year, I got to preview the festival for Seattle Times. It steeled my resolve to finally explore the Seattle International Dance Festival.

Art on the Fly

Art on the Fly is a free, all-ages event that kicks off the Seattle International Dance Festival (SIDF) each year at Denny Park. (In all the years I’ve lived in Seattle, I don’t think I had ever actually set foot in Denny Park – a former cemetery and one of the cities oldest public green spaces.) Art on the Fly includes free dance classes and performances. It is always the first Saturday of the festival, running from around noon to mid-afternoon, in conjunction with the South Lake Union Saturday Market. This year Art on the Fly was on June 8.

Getting There

June 8 turned out to be almost as challenging as the June Saturdays in previous years. In the event, the family had to split up to get all the things done. But my 10-year-old and I finally managed to catch a bus towards downtown and arrived at the park an hour or so after they started. Lake Union is never a good place to park, and with all the road construction in the neighborhood this year, taking the bus was a very good choice.

What We Found

We wandered around the park, where it was hard to tell where the festival ended a normal Saturday in South Lake Union started. Gold-painted women danced on a small stage just feet away from a rousing game of ping pong. On the other side of a shrub border, people were playing badminton.

Along one path a man sat on a speker, playing electric cello. A DJ spun in one corner of the park while a group of people participated in a dance workshop on the grass in another. If I hadn’t known there was a festival going on, I might have mistaken them (and the various groups rehearsing elsewhere in the park) for friends teaching each other a new dance.

What We Did

After we watched the dancers in gold, and wandered around, we passed through the Saturday market. We’d had a late breakfast, so we bypassed most of the food trucks. But my daughter couldn’t resist the taro boba tea in a flashing light bulb cup. It cost as much as buying lunch. We wandered back to the stage area and listened to a set by a woman with a ukulele.

The highlight of the day, for me, was getting to see the Massive Monkees perform. I’ve seen them on video, and got to interview a member a few years ago, but this was the first time seeing them live. Even though this performance was more like an educational demo, with lots of interruptions to explain breakdancing and how the group works, just getting to see how they move was sort of unreal.  

Watching breakdance when you’re used to ballet is like watching parkour when you’re used to karate. It almost seems like they are not using the same gravity you are using. I can’t count to four the same speed twice, but it was fun watching the little kids in the audience who couldn’t resist joining in – even before they called for volunteers to come on stage. And watching the little kid who already knew how to dance was just – ah, nothing beats the combination of cuteness and skill.

What I Felt

Wandering around the festival reminded me of lazy summer Saturdays when I was in college and still exploring the city. Back then, I would leave my apartment and just start walking, often ending up in a park I’d never seen before. One time, I stumbled on the Mural concerts; another time I discovered the Peace Concerts. I didn’t always discover a new concert series. Some walks would reveal a flower I’d never seen before or just a street with cool houses. Sometimes I listened to buskers or made friends with panhandlers. Sometimes friends would show up with frisbees or hackey sack.

It’s been years since I had the kind of free time that allowed for an aimless wander. And so Art on the Fly was the first time in years that I felt that sense of neighborhood discovery and community life that drew me to Seattle in the first place.