BMCC # 6 MOTOWN RETURNS TO THE APOLLO

BMCC # 6 MOTOWN RETURNS TO THE APOLLO
Dancers whirled down the aisles of the newly renovated Apollo Theater shortly after 8 P.M. yesterday. It was ''Motown Returns to the Apollo,'' a three-hour television special taped by NBC for airing on May 19, with 60 entertainers representing a wide spectrum of pop, soul and jazz talent over the last 50 years.

The taping was one of several events yesterday that launched the 50th anniversary and grand reopening of the theater that was one of the birthplaces of rock-and-roll and soul. The taping was followed by a post-concert dinner-dance to benefit the Africare-Ethiopian Famine Relief Fund.

''Entertainment was what the Apollo was always about and what it is still about,'' proclaimed Bill Cosby, the evening's master of ceremonies.

Since Jan. 26, 1934, when black entertainers and audiences first streamed into the converted burlesque house, the Apollo's marquee has boasted such names as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Nat (King) Cole, and the theater, often known as ''the big top,'' gained an international reputation as a performance center for top black musicians.