Divas make dean's list.

IT'S A QUIET Friday on the sprawling campus of Dean College in Franklin, MA. That is, until you get near the Performing Arts Center, where from the street choreographer and Broadway, tap, and jazz legend Maurice Hines can be heard shouting, "Full out, divas! Full out!"

At an audition the night before, Hines chose 10 young women, his new-found "divas," to learn his rapid-fire choreography. The next night, they'll perform the challenging dance to a packed house of 600.

Hines had planned to teach the dancers an excerpt from his latest project, Hot Feet, a re-working of the classic film The Red Shoes, set to music by Earth, Wind & Fire. "They were so spectacular," he says during a rehearsal break, "that I ended up starting to create instead of just re-creating." He's added an intricate foot-slapping passage inspired by a dance he saw once in West Africa. The women attempt the phrase, but look skeptical. "I'm 60," he tells them, "and if I can do it, so can you!"

The occasion is "Red Hot Jazz & Tap, The Dean College Dance Extravaganza," a three-day taste of what it's like to work on Broadway or in Hollywood. Dean College, a 45-minute drive from Boston, awards two-year associate degrees to its academic majors. But in 2000 the school responded to the appeal of dance majors and added a BA degree in dance.

The "Dance Extravaganza" guest faculty includes Emmy Award-winning AC Ciulla (famous for his Dr. Pepper commercials and choreography for Footloose and Stars on Ice), tap choreographer Derick K. Grant (a featured performer in Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk and Riverdance), and Dean College alumnus Jay T. Jenkins, (director of New York-based Jette Company and the jazz-funk choreographer for Prince, Salt N' Pepa, Chaka Kahn, and Cyndi Lauper).

While each guest artist has his own style and teaching method, the four concur that the students offer a source of inspiration that's rare in the world of hardened professionals. "This morning I told my agent that I'm renewed, really, just by being here," says Hines. "On Broadway, lots of the time the dancers are just there for a paycheck."

JOAN PALLADINO, dance department founder and dean, had encouraged all 160 dance majors to try out for the extravaganza, and 115 of them showed up for the three-hour audition. Seventy-two were selected to dance in the final program, which would be shared by the four choreographers. A few were chosen by more than one artist, and had to work extra hard to learn two pieces.

Senior Rachel DiLeo said the intense audition was a lesson in itself, but she welcomed the sense of competition. "It makes you want it more," she says. "And then you really turn it on when you see someone else busting it out!"

Once in the studio, the choreographers had just five hours to make and rehearse their dances. Jenkins said that, above all, he wanted the students to learn to take risks. "Some mistakes have turned out to be masterpieces," he tells them. Students giggle when he says, "Squeeze your knees together, like you have to go to the bathroom!" Along with that gesture, he decides they should hiss like a tire going flat, and then he throws in a bit of the lindy hop. "Everything old is new again," he shouts as he demonstrates the step. "This is all from the 1940s!"

Across campus, in an old carriage house converted into a tap studio, Grant teaches a daunting tap passage by reciting just the rhythms. Quietly intense, he has something of the Zen master about him. "If you're thinking about it too much, it will never happen," he warns the dancers.

Ciulla is perhaps the most frenetic and risky of these four. He talks constantly as he creates phrases in the school's gymnasium. "Squirm, squirm, squirm and seven, eight," he shouts. "And then I need like five, and ... torture yourself!" He uses one arm to reach from behind and pull his forehead back dramatically. The next day, the students say they're sore from sliding on their knees.

"It's kind of surreal to know that this is where I'm off to and that this is just a touch of what is ahead for me," says senior Lauren Mangano, "But I'm definitely moving to New York in the summer, and whatever comes nay way I'm going to take it in with a smile. The worst part is the way my body feels right now!"

On Saturday night, the show proves itself worthy of the label "extravaganza." Palladino introduces each guest artist with a video montage of their work, and then the four men sit on stools downstage and engage in a lively hour-long discussion, sharing their insights and offering advice with humor and poignancy. Ciulla reveals that he landed his first job on Broadway at 16, having been chosen at an audition by none other than Hines. Grant admits that he would love to collaborate with singer Bobby McFerrin, "who's got rhythm all around him."

And then, finally, the students perform the dances which have been seamlessly merged into one big spectacle. The performance goes off without a hitch, even Grant's complicated tap number that showed signs of fragmenting at tech rehearsal.

Before the show, Palladino offered some advice to aspiring dancers. "Get yourself seen, go audition, and study with plenty of different people. Don't lock yourself in the studio. We encourage our students to go out in the world," she said, "and that's what lights up their eyes."

Theodore Bale is dance critic and columnist at the Boston Herald.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.dean.edu, 508.541.1606.