Gams and Gamelans

The gamelan, the traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra, includes all kinds of colorful metal percussion— instruments with wonderful onomatopoeic names like the kethuk, with a drier, hollower, less-resonant sound, and of course, the gong. But the 15-member Gamelan X expands this tradition by adding African and Middle Eastern percussion, Western brass, winds and strings and synthesizers. Their performances also include participatory instruction in the Balinese monkey chant, or kecak, a brilliantly rhythmic, rapid-fire vocal effect that has to be heard to be believed. GAVIN BORCHERT

BQ Dance

Its time for dancing in the streets, or at least on the sidewalks. Carla Barragan has taken her company all the way to Burien for Windows, a new work for King Countys site-specific art program. Barragan seems to revel in dancing outdoors (one of the most poignant sequences in her film The Box has her rolling in gravel)city concrete should be no trouble. Her new dance explores the boundaries of mystery and transparency, so it makes sense that the company finishes the work in a shop window. SANDRA KURTZ