GYMNASTS GOING OUT TO BALLPARK : LOCAL KIDS TO PERFORM BEFORE DODGERS GAME.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Youngsters from a local gymnastics program will be tumbling and somersaulting across the Dodger Stadium outfield Tuesday as part of a pregame promotion.

About three dozen youngsters from Fun & Fit Gymnastics will take part in the exhibition before the Dodgers play the Philadelphia Phillies, said Luis Pereira, office manager for the Canyon Country gymnasium.

Children from Fun & Fit Gymnastics in Burbank also will participate.

Gymnastics night has been an annual event at the ballpark since the 1970s, and Fun & Fit gymnasts have taken part for more than a decade, said Mary Anne Ulry, operations manager for the Burbank gym. ``It's an annual thing that (the kids) look forward to. They put on a little show for the fans,'' she said.

The children, ranging from 3 to 15 years old, will demonstrate various tumbling maneuvers. The older gymnasts will perform acrobatics on bars, balance beams and trampolines.

Although the gymnasts generally don't get to meet the ballplayers before or after the performance, most of the kids are too preoccupied by stage fright or by being awestruck by the vastness of the ballpark and the number of spectators, Pereira said.

``We have some kids that, once they get out there, just stand there and drop their mouths open,'' he said, recalling past exhibitions. But many of the kids welcome the audience attention - especially from the stadium camera operators.

``Everybody is anxious to see themselves up on the scoreboard as they're performing,'' Pereira said.

In a nod to the just-completed Summer Games in Atlanta, the children and teens will wear matching T-shirts printed with the five Olympic rings and perform to Olympic-theme music, he said.

Ulry and Pereira said enthusiasm for their sport has risen in the wake of the U.S. women's victory and Kerri Strug's dramatic vault to clinch the team gold.

``There definitely has been an increase of interest since the team medal was won,'' Ulry said. ``We received a lot of phone calls, surprisingly from adults. They remembered how fun it was and wanted to get back involved in it.''

Two-thirds of the 500 students at Fun & Fit's Canyon Country gym are girls and women, Pereira said. Most come to class once a week, and children are grouped based on their age and ability level.

``We teach all apparatus: bars, beams, trampoline, vault, rings and tumbling,'' Pereira said. ``They start with basic skills, like forward rolls and backward rolls, and then move on to handstands and cartwheels, back handsprings and back flips.''