REAL PEOPLE WITH ‘HEAVENLY BODIES’

By the time the credits have unrolled for the infectious little Canadian film “Heavenly Bodies” (citywide), gorgeous, ambitious Cynthia Dale and two of her pals in the secretarial pool have chucked their jobs and opened a dancercise studio in a derelict factory.

Comparisons between “Flashdance” and “Heavenly Bodies,” which is what the girls call their studio, are so inevitable that we might as well get them out of the way at the start. Both feature hard-driving aerobics whizzes, but “Heavenly Bodies” benefits from a dash of gritty Canadian realism, even as it heads, with a disco beat, for a “Rocky” fantasy finish. What’s more, Dale, a trained dancer as well as actress, does all her own stuff, including some beautiful, expressive ballets choreographed by Brian Foley. No dance-in here.

Amid all those “heavenly bodies,” long-stemmed, non-stop high-kickers born to wear tights, is a story about an entirely appealing young woman coping with overnight success and its perils. No sooner does her new studio start catching on than she finds herself landing her own TV show, her radiant smile helping her edge out the more experienced Laura Henry, a sore loser. Henry craves revenge once she catches her handsome, caddish boyfriend (Walter George Alton), a health club operator, making a pass (unreciprocated) at Dale.

On the home front, Dale, a single mother, is becoming involved with likable football star Richard Rebiere, who’d like her to chuck everything and go with him to Chicago to embark upon a restaurant venture.

Writer-director Lawrence Dane (with co-writer Ron Base, a Toronto Star film critic) make “Heavenly Bodies” believable and involving. Up there on the screen are so many young people in such great shape they would be downright intimidating if they were simply bodies instead of people we can care about. Dale is a real find, and Henry deserves credit for making her adversary human. Stuart Stone is excellent as Dale’s small son. Since there’s some fairly steamy sex in the R-rated “Heavenly Bodies” it’s best to leave small children at home.