When Leonard de Paur became Lincoln Center's director of community relations in 1970, two things concerned him: the lack of community participation in the center's activities and the vast, empty plazas. The result is Lincoln Center Out of Doors. The extravagant festival of free dance, music and theater, this year titled Celebrate Good Times, starts on Saturday and runs through Aug. 29. The public quickly responded to de Paur's revolutionary idea, flocking to Lincoln Center in August to watch both the famous and the unknown local artists perform under an open sky; attendance now reaches 200,000 every summer. <P> <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/library/dance/07300dance-starlit.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.nytimes.com/library/dance/07300dance-starlit.html</A>

A quote from a review by Eva Yaa Asantewaa:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Hope Boykin, trying to describe the origin of her choreography's striking iconography, recalls how her mother got her attention in church. "She'd point. One finger went up, and I could see it from way in the back . . . from anywhere." A cautionary gesture—and, baby, one was enough! You can see the consequences of that lesson Wednesday, when Boykin and other dance artists—all black women—show their own work at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Read the <A HREF="http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0032/asantewaa.shtml" TARGET=_blank>full article in the Village Voice</A>.