The room looks like a scene from Fame. About 20 students garbed in dancer chic--leotards, leg warmers, and tights--fling themselves across the room to the rhythm provided by the pianist in the corner. The teacher stops and the students start the dance "one more time" as they wipe the sweat off their brows.

But the dance studio is not at New York's High School of Performing Arts; it's at Harvard's Malkin Athletic Center. And the students are not enrolled in a four-year high school program, but a six-week summer program that could prove to be the most intense dance experience of their lives.

For 14 years, the Harvard Summer Dance Center has been offering aspiring professional dancers and students who just want to dance the opportunity to spend six weeks of their summer totally immersed in dance. About 165 students come to Harvard to partake of the more than 20 dance courses offered. Classes range from the classical ballet, jazz and tap offerings to dance therapy and choreography workshops.

The Dance Center is not restricted to classes, however. Not officially affiliated with the University, the Center falls under the umbrella of the Summer School. In addition to the classes, the Dance Center also produces about two weekends of concerts per summer.

"For years we've brought people here that have no other way of getting to Boston," says Director of the Dance Center Iris M. Fanger. This summer David Gordon and the Pick-Up Company will perform in late July and Remy Charlip will dance a New England Premier Concert the following weekend.

Dancing 9 to 5

Classes are, however, the Center's primary focus. The students come from all over the world and range in age from 16 up. Some students are area residents who just want to take an intensive dance class, while others live in the dorms and for six weeks do nothing but dance. These students take three or four hour-and-a-half classes every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Such rigorous exercise takes its toll. "It's difficult, dancing all day long. I've never done that before," says Jennifer DeWitt, a high school senior from Houston.

Says Richard Bull, a senior at Loyola College in Maryland, "Muscles ache that we never knew we had." His friend, Jane Keller interjects, "You find you have to get a lot of rest and sleep on weekends," quickly adding that "no one does."

For Stephanie Nelson, a high school senior from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., the morning classes can be the most exhausting. She says, "You hate getting up at nine o'clock in the morning to go to classes, but once you're there, you become involved."

But the students don't begrudge themselves the exercise, by and large. Dewitt says, "You're only here for six weeks and we're going to make the most of it you can."

Keller, a sophomore at Middlebury College agrees that the short time span of the dance program is beneficial. "I'm learning a lot because they're cramming so much into a short period of time."

"It's good to be really physically tired," says Shawn J. Stirling. She adds that she dances more than she does during the school year as a dance major at Arizona State University. "This is just all dance and you have enough energy because you don't have other classes. You can be physical all day," says Stirling.

Her roommate Josephine Longuria adds, "Maybe it looks as if you work less, because you sweat less, but you really have to work internally. You work with your body. You're not only moving, you're moving, thinking, concentrating, controlling; it's very intense."

Most students say, however, that the exceptional expertise of their teachers makes the extreme exhaustion at the end of their eight hour dancing-and-prancing day worthwhile. Students praise their teachers' personal and professional attributes.