Dance 10, Looks ... 10

Indeed, the 1995 epic bust about Nevada nymphs that proved that some things that happen in Vegas really, really should stay there, has proved to be a cult classic 13 years after it first escaped on the screen.

But "Showgirls" the shandah is no Bat Mitzvah girl anyone would really go to bat for as great art -- unless your heart warms to the notion that an ice sculpture of an ice princess is worth the mental meltdown.

The mess of a movie by the director of "Total Recall" proved that even the best could forget the basic instincts of good filmmaking. Many of those attached to the film about life on the strip had to bear the brutal brunt of being associated with a movie so bad that it made the flesh peddlers on the Vegas Boulevard ask for their cards back.

No one suffered more than the elegant Elizabeth Berkley, the lead "Showgirl" who had once showed up on screen as the genuine Jessie in the teen sitcom "Saved by the Bell." Saved from the bilious? This belle needed a fire engine to hose down a career that went up in flames.

But ...

Berkley has legs -- and they are much better than that former vehicle she could have sued for lack of support.

Indeed, after years of showing up for interviews in which "Showgirls" appeared as the gossip du jour, this Jewish beauty from Farmington Hills, Mich., has proved she's in a good place now, a "show me" state of being in which she lets those l-o-n-g legs do the walking through those yellow pages of journalism that almost jettisoned her joyous dreams.

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Indeed, Nomi is no more as Berkley, at 35, has kicked the showgirl to the shoals of all those oceans that threaten to engulf careers with one bad tsunami of a terrible choice made. The kicks she gets these days -- after receiving serenades of salutes for striking chords with critics (without any G-strings plucked) for turns in "Roger Dodger," "The First Wives Club" and Woody Allen's "Curse of the Jade Scorpion" -- shows that the "Showgirls" curse has been lifted. Lap dance allusions have ceded to victory laps.

And now, the ballerina can cool her jetes in the coolest of ways, playing host of "Step It Up & Dance," Bravo's bravura Thursday-night reality turn for dancers wanting to break a leg in the best possible way.

The actress -- whose high spin in David Rabe's "Hurly Burly" off-Broadway revival ran pell-mell over any past doubts of her devotion to the art, and whose "Sly Fox" vixen nabbed Broadway attention opposite Richard Dreyfuss -- faces a letter-perfect reception, and not the Scarlet Letter she once felt plastered on her past.

Dance 10, looks ... 10: No "T&A" from "A Chorus Line" for her theme song. But there was that singular sensation ...

As a 4-year-old, the "Step" star was encouraged to step right up and dance by her supportive parents and felt, well, "I could do that."

"That was one of my recital numbers when I was about 6 years old," she says with a smile in her voice of the "Chorus Line" credo.

Family took their turns at the lead. "My grandfather and I would dance all the time. I mean, he always had music on, and I would watch Shirley Temple."

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"I would watch her on TV and just mimic her, like on our stairs. I didn't know what I was doing at that age until I got in class."

She was a class act all the way, abetted by a small space in the basement carved out by her parents so she could practice. "It was very simple, nothing fancy," she says, fancying the memory. "But it was mine, and it was my rehearsal space, and it was sacred to me."

As has been her faith in Judaism. The Shirley Temple fan had her hopes for a full fantastic life fanned by attending temple. Proudly Jewish with a joie de vivre that comes from being part of a religion that celebrates hope and happiness, she is in fine voice -- which may be due in part to the singing lessons Berkley took later from the legendary Cantor Nathan Lam while attending the Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles, from which Lam beamed with pride from the bimah.

Making it big in the business can be a tall order for a ... tall girl. The sun will come out tomorrow, a young Berkley discovered, but it was the shadow of her smile yesterday which almost obliterated it from view. Yes, the 5-foot, 10-inch star concedes, it wasn't the height of fashion to be that tall when trying out for "Annie" -- towering over the other moppets left her feeling orphaned.

"But, you know what? It's never really hurt me," she says of being the big girl on campus. "I think when I was a kid, at times -- I think I was always a little bit of an old soul, I was always a little taller."

She carried it off. "People maybe thought I was more sophisticated."

No doubt she stepped right into the spotlight as soon as she could -- but who knew that light was from the pediatrician's otoscope? "My mom said basically I was dancing out of the womb," says Berkley.

Womb with a view of the future? So much of her career work has not been about dancing, which she wouldn't mind tapping into at some point. In a way that is the en point of this series, although she's host, not hoofer.

"Dance is so in my bones and in my blood," says Berkley.

And in her marrow is the need to help others toe the line when they need it. To that end, Berkley has taken the question, "How can I give back?" and backed it up by creating a Web site (www.ask-elizbath.com) in which she tries to help defuse young girls' problems when not everything is beautiful at the ballet. So, after all is said and done -- and the bar is raised and the barre comes down -- is everything really beautiful at the ballet?

"Truth is, ballet for me was always the foundation to make my tap and jazz better," concedes Berkley.

And, truth is, she still can't escape the occasional "Showgirls" showstopper of a question. Does she mind?

Sure, she can talk about it, and even concedes she gets a kick out of how the film's grown in cult status.

But put it behind her, and become the star she has the talent and every right to be? Back-kick the past and "Step It Up" a notch? Drawing on the "Line" she grew up loving: Yeah, she replies.

She can do that.