`GREASE ON ICE' IS THE WORD; VALLEY SKATER PUT ON DANCING SHOES TO LEARN PART OF FRENCHIE.

Byline: - Carol Bidwell

Remember poodle skirts, ducktails, leather jackets, sock hops, drag racing?

The stage show (before it was a movie) that memorialized those '50s icons, opens tonight in a new, really cool adaptation - ``Grease on Ice'' - at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

And hand-jivin' with the rest of the cast will be 22-year-old Natasha Kuchiki of Canoga Park, a lifelong figure skater who (with then-partner Todd Sand) placed sixth in the 1992 Winter Olympics. Kuchiki, who's been balancing on blades since she was a year old, plays Frenchie, the beauty school dropout who lends a sympathetic ear to Sandy (played by Olympic silver and bronze medalist Nancy Kerrigan) about her romance with Danny (played by Canadian Matt Williams).

Although Kuchiki has done a few commercials, she said acting while skating is a challenge - and an even harder skill to master was learning to lip-sync to recorded music while doing both.

``You're not just skating, you're telling a story,'' Kuchiki said. ``It's fun, but it's a lot of work.''

In the show, Frenchie's not hard to spot. She's the one who lives her life in pink: pink pedal pushers, pink prom dress, pink hair bows and, of course, a Pink Lady jacket to make her one of the gang at Rydell High School.

``She's a little bit ditsy, like many other teen-agers in this world,'' Kuchiki said of her character. ``She doesn't know what she wants.''

While getting inside the character, learning the dance routines - rock 'n' roll on the rocks - supplied a good workout and a lot of fun, she said.

Choreographer Barry Lather, who's worked with pop stars Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul, rehearsed the ``Grease on Ice'' cast for three days on stage in a theater with no skates and no ice so they could get used to the movements of dances that were popular long before they were born.

Kuchiki loved the dancing almost better than skating.

``It made me want to hang up my skates and switch over to just dancing,'' she said. ``I just love to perform. And dance shoes don't hurt your feet like skate boots do.''

But skating will always be her first love, Kuchiki said. Her mother, Denise, was performance director for the Ice Capades and her father, Sashi, was a principal skater when they first allowed her and her older sister to wobble out onto the ice with them. The girls traveled with their parents until Kuchiki was 5 years old, then the family settled into a house in the Valley.

After years of practice, Kuchiki teamed with figure skater Todd Sand; the pair's first major achievements were in 1990, placing 11th in the 1990 World Championships and second in the U.S. Nationals. The next year, they took first place in the U.S. Nationals and went on to place near the top in many other competitions.

After performances tonight and Wednesday at the Sports Arena, ``Grease on Ice'' will move to the Long Beach Arena, with shows scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Additional performances are scheduled for March 23 and 24 at the Pond of Anaheim. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. except for a 1:30 matinee performance Sunday in Long Beach.

Tickets - at $13.50, $17.50 and $27.50 - can be purchased at the box offices or by calling [phone] or [phone].

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PHOTO Natasha Kuchiki of Canoga Park, second from left, plays Frenchie the beauty school dropout in ``Grease on Ice.''