Best Bets Saturday 5/18

8pm

Dance

Nearly every dance idiom celebrates physical prowess, but in an extraordinary work titled “Feeling for Open Spaces, None for Crowded Areas,” postmodern pioneer Rudy Perez does the opposite, making an unsparing autobiographical study of the movement options available to the visually impaired. At 72, he repeats that work as part of a program titled “Back by Popular Demand,” essentially an encore of the talk-and-dance performance “The Art of Rudy Perez,” presented last season at Cal State L.A. He will, however, include one premiere: “Sphinx,” inspired by a beach painting by New York artist Graham Nickson. Be warned. As a Times review commented after the 2001 performance, Perez’s “genius for paring everything down to essential statements exists only in his choreography. Indeed, something like the opposite occurs when he begins to talk.”

Rudy Perez, “Back by Popular Demand,” Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. 8 p.m. Also Sunday, 5 p.m. $10 (students, seniors) to $15. (626) 792-5101.

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Festival

The 10th annual NoHo Theatre & Arts Festival has something for just about everyone, and, best of all, a lot of it is free. Several outdoor stages will feature continuous entertainment, including music and dance, and more than 100 performances will be going on in the NoHo district’s theaters. The festival also includes interactive arts experiences for children, art exhibits, a vendor marketplace and cuisine from more than 15 countries.

NoHo Theatre & Arts Festival 2002, NoHo Arts District, Lankershim Boulevard at Magnolia Boulevard, North Hollywood. Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Free. (323) 871-8500.

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Jazz

Bebop may be the jazz of the early-morning hours as seen from the night before, but smooth jazz? That form is apparently palatable for brunch-time. The Hyatt Newporter Jazz Festival gets rolling at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, after a kickoff show Friday night by Peter White. Some of the other performers are Keiko Matsui, Michael Franks, Poncho Sanchez, Spyro Gyra, Joyce Cooling, Michael Paulo and Acoustic Alchemy.

Hyatt Newporter Jazz Festival at Hyatt Newporter Outdoor Amphitheater, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. Saturday and Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. $45 to $150. (213) 480-3232.

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Architecture

There’s no doubt that such current projects as Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels are revitalizing the landscape of downtown Los Angeles. Vacant buildings are being transformed into lofts, movie palaces and landmark buildings are being restored, and thousands of new homes may be in the works for a proposed redevelopment district. L.A. Architect magazine celebrates this revitalization Saturday with Downtown L.A.: Where Design Hits the Road, which puts the spotlight on the area’s older architecture. Festivities include a block party on Traction Avenue with a bus tour of historic downtown, a walking tour of lofts and showrooms, book signings by architects, music performances, and a panel discussion at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

Downtown L.A.: Where Design Hits the Road, Traction Avenue, downtown L.A. (Public parking at Southern California Institute of Architecture, 350 Merrick St., downtown L.A.) 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. (213) 613-2200.

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Pop Music

The definition of “blues” gets stretched wider than a volleyball net at this weekend’s Doheny Blues Festival at the state beach in Dana Point. Yes, they’ll be bringing in such bona fide blues veterans as B. B. King, Charlie Musselwhite and Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers as well as more recent blues arrivals including Roy Rogers & the Delta Rhythm Kings and guitar hotshot Jonny Lang. But the lineup also includes East L.A. pan-roots-music heroes Los Lobos, rock pioneers Bo Diddley and Little Richard, country wise guy Junior Brown and Texas-Louisiana ivory-tickler Marcia Ball. It may not all be blues, but it ain’t bad.

Doheny Blues Festival, Doheny State Beach, 25300 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point. 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $35 per day general, $10 for children 12 and under. Two-day passes, $55. VIP pass, $75, gold pass, $150. (949) 262-2662.

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8pm

Theater

and Arts

“Their Venture Upon Horizons: An Odyssey Submerged in the Inner Tribes,” presented by Pacific Asia Museum, is a traditional Indonesian-style shadow puppet play exploring the creation and history of the fictitious island of Anaphoria. The special performance is part of the MicroFest microtonal music festival.

“Their Venture Upon Horizons: An Odyssey Submerged in the Inner Tribes,” Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. 8 p.m. $8. (626) 449-2742.