DANCERS, NOT THE PLOT, TAKE 'CENTER STAGE'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

American ballet movies evidently can't help but come out hokey and vulgar, ``The Turning Point'' being the supreme example. Something about the Hollywood/high-art hybrid always having to indulge silly melodrama in the hopes of attracting a mass audience.

This year's model, ``Center Stage,'' doesn't come close to ``Turning's'' high point of shrill tastelessness, but it's not for lack of trying. This one is your basic collection of aspiring trainee cliches - think ``Fame'' with a dumber plot and prettier dancing - all tied up with a ``modern'' production number so astonishingly crass that even MTV might refuse to run it in the wee hours. For ``Stage's'' climax, of course, it triumphantly brings down the house at Lincoln Center.

The movie charts the struggles, misadventures and, of course, dreams of a pack of young students at the American Ballet Academy, the elite New York institution connected at the hip to the renowned American Ballet Theatre. Mostly played by real dancers who ain't exactly movie actors, the troupe includes our heroine, Jody (San Francisco Ballet's Amanda Schull), a pretty blonde with bad technique; Eva (Zoe Saldana), a tough-talking, street-smart ethnic who, just the opposite of her whit friend, is such a great natural dancer she doesn't even need to practice; and Maureen (Susan May Pratt), a snooty school superstar with bulimia and a vicariously-living mother.

These girls and some of their guy friends (boy who worships Jody from afar, gay African-American, etc.) have their various clashes with the by-the-book dancing establishment as represented by demanding instructors (God, they're sooo fascist) and the smarmy artistic director Jonathan Reeves (Peter Gallagher), who holds their fates in his untrustworthy hands.

Lucky for mediocre Jody, the cute resident ABT star Cooper Neilson (real ABT superstar Ethan Stiefel) takes a shine to her. Of course, he thinks he's only interested for a night or two. But then, Cooper needs a dancer who's willing to do anything, if not necessarily well, for the new style (read: ``Flashdance'') ballet he's choreographing in response to the stuffy, traditional graduation piece his arch-rival Reeves is mounting. If Jody brings a few emotional resentments to the act, well, all the better.

There really is a lot of excellent dancing in ``Center Stage,'' and the fantasy aspect of it should appeal to every ballerina-in-her-own-mind the nation's junior high schools contain. Camera choreography is expert as well; the director is Nicholas Hytner, who's done ``Miss Saigon'' and ``Carousel'' on stage, and the cinematographer is Australia's fine Geoffrey Simpson (``Shine,'' ``Oscar and Lucinda''). The dreadful dialogue was written by Carol Heikkinen, whose two other music-related films, ``The Thing Called Love'' and ``Empire Records,'' barely got released.

The facts

The film: ``Center Stage'' (PG-13; sex, language).

--The stars: Amanda Schull, Zoe Saldana, Susan May Pratt, Ethan Stiefel, Peter Gallagher, Donna Murphy, Debra Monk.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by Nicholas Hytner. Written by Carol Heikkinen. Produced by Laurence Mark. Released by Columbia Pictures.

--Running time: One hour, 53 minutes.

--Playing: Citywide.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Photo: Amanda Schull stars as a dancer with poor technique in ``Center Stage.''