Hip-hop groups lack space in Wooden Center

“Baby let me love you down …” The voice of Usher blasts from an iPod speaker perched atop the back of a parked golf cart. Decked out in an array of outfits and loose-laced shoes, the hip-hop dancers of Samahang Modern jump, bend and try to ignore the cars circling in search of a parking spot in the dimly lit structure behind them.

Up in the air: Acrobatic community at UCLA hopes to call John Wooden Center its home

Andrew Blankfield hoists himself up onto the white ply rope. Using his toes as grips, he climbs with the dexterity of a spider monkey toward the top, pausing to flip upside down and wrap the rope in multiple loops around his waist and thighs.