DANCE PRODIGY POISED FOR ANOTHER BIG STEP.

Byline: VICTORIA GIRAUD

Sarah Braverman, an 11-year-old Sumac Elementary School student, will be one of the principle amateur dancers - including a solo - at the special graduation performance of Bernadette Hill's Body Arts Consultancy Dance program July 12.

Since working with Hill for the past three years, Sarah has completed and passed the level 5 Royal Academy of Dancing qualifying diploma program. She is now qualified to begin her major syllabus in the fall, which means learning to go ``en pointe,'' or more commonly, toe dance.

The Royal Academy of Dancing - a collaboration of French, Danish and Russian ballet technique - demands high professional standards of technique from its students, Hill said, adding that many ballet schools are not so concerned with detail.

``It's quite extraordinary,'' Hill observed of her student, who is two years ahead of most dancers her age. ``It's as if she'd done it before. She's got the soul of a dancer.''

Sarah takes it all in stride, whether it's a pirouette or an arabesque, a jazz routine or a tap dance. ``It's really a fun thing to do, a fun exercise,'' she declared. ``It's a challenge. It gets harder, but it pays off in the end.''

Sarah likes ballet the best. ``Ballet classes help make jazz better. I work hard at the arabesque, but if you work on it hard enough, you can get it down.''

Pat Braverman, Sarah's mother, said Sarah took gymnastics at the park when she was 2. ``They said she was coordinated; we needed to do something with her. We placed her in Bernadette's hands and she just loves it.''

Dancing runs in the family, although it skipped a generation. ``Grandma (Pat's mother) was a dancer. Mom told me a lot about her,'' Sarah said.

Pat's mother Therese was part of the vaudeville acrobatic and dance act Thomas & Therese. She danced for some 25 years, at one point even for Barnum & Bailey Circus. Pat and her brothers took dance lessons, but none of them were talented.

Sarah's dancing requires dedication both from herself and her family. She takes lessons five days a week, which means her mother or her father, Blair, must be on hand for transportation. Blair gladly lends a hand, commenting that his daughter is ``mostly a terrific kid.''

The graduation performance, ``What I Did For Love,'' a mini-musical at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre, will feature Hill's dance students, ages 3-1/2 to 16, as well as Washington, D.C., Ballet dancers Carmen Rosario and Peter Stark.

The students will also dance with the Nicholas Sisters, 13 and 9, granddaughters of the Nicholas Brothers - famed acrobatic tap dancers, prominent in movies of the 1940s.

Dancing solo is not new for Sarah. In the 1995 graduation program, held at the Civic Arts Plaza, the then-9-year-old was chosen to solo to singer Aaron Neville's recording of ``The Lord's Prayer.''

At home Sarah enjoys dancing around the house and singing to CDs. Her favorite singers include Celine Dion and Sheryl Crow, and she likes old Motown tunes.

Dance is not her only physical activity. She plays basketball on a team for American Youth Basketball Association, and enjoys playing touch football with her father and cousins from time to time. Her dancing teacher agonizes a bit over the possibility of a sports injury that would impair Sarah's dancing, but Sarah's not worried.

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Photo: Sarah Braverman, 11, has completed and passed the level 5 Royal Academy of Dancing qualifying diploma program and will appear at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre July 12.

Evan Yee/Daily News