DIVERSIONS : Skaters Cut Dashing Figures on the Ice : Events: The Tour of World Figure Skating Champions brings together professional and amateur artists this weekend at the Forum.

For those who consider figure skating to be an elitist winter sport, consider this: In May and June, 1988, ticket demand for the annual Tour of World Figure Skating Champions was second only to Michael Jackson’s tour.

Jackson isn’t on the road this year, but the skaters are still going strong. This weekend, the World Tour hits the Great Western Forum, but with a different spin: Besides presenting the creme de la creme of amateur skating, the roster includes several generations of notable professional skaters. (The skating show will be either Friday or Saturday, depending on the Lakers playoffs.)

Among the skating pros are: 1968 Olympic champion Peggy Fleming, ’84 and ’88 Olympic silver medalist Brian Orser, ’84 world pair champs Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, ’88 Olympic pair champs--and honeymooners--Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, ’88 Olympic dance champs Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin, and ’88 Olympic silver medalist Elizabeth Manley.

They will share the ice with such amateurs as current world champion/U.S. silver medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, world silver medalist/U.S. ladies champ Tonya Harding, world silver medalist Viktor Petrenko and world bronze medalist/U.S. men’s champ Todd Eldredge--none of whom were even born when Fleming won her gold medal. (Amateurs can skate in certain shows with professionals without jeopardizing their amateur status.)

Recruiting the professionals was a move born not out of shrewd showmanship but of necessity, says Minneapolis-based tour producer Tom Collins, a former Holiday on Ice star who has presented every World Tour in North America since 1975.

“I looked at what I had amateur-wise, and there were not enough (skaters) available to fill the buildings,” Collins says, pointing to the athletes’ personal, school, training and performing commitments. “We wouldn’t have had a tour, so I decided to insert pros and put on my thinking cap. It’s probably one of the best tours I’ve ever had,” says Collins. (He mixed pros and amateurs in 1989, but on a much smaller scale.)

Amateurs still outnumber the pros, and there’s a strong local contingent among them. Eldredge, current world bronze pair medalists/U.S. champs Natasha Kuchiki and Todd Sand, and U.S. silver medalist Christopher Bowman represent the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club.

The company of about 35--the cast varies from city to city--skates the opening and closing numbers. There are about 24 solo, pair and dance performances in between. There is also a range of music during the 2 1/2-hour show because unlike rule-bound amateur competitions, exhibition skaters are free to use vocals and props, and to execute back flips and other flashy maneuvers.

The tour, which visits 30 U.S. cities in six weeks, is unique, participants say. “There’s a certain energy about the tour, an excitement, that you feel from the other skaters,” says Barbara Underhill of Canada, who, with partner Paul Martini, has won 10 professional titles since 1984. “This is the first time a lot of the skaters have done the World Tour, and you feel that, too.”

Making a comeback on the tour is 22-year-old Jill Trenary. The three-time U.S. and 1990 world champion from Minnesota was forced to withdraw from this year’s competitions after ankle surgery. After a three-month layoff, she resumed skating about two months ago.

“It wasn’t smooth sailing when I first got back on the ice, so it’s really good to get back to a show like this and build my confidence,” she says. “And I’m thrilled to be back with all these talented skaters. My ankle is fine now, but I’m working hard to get back to the way I was before the injury. I don’t want people to think I’m out (of contention for next year’s Winter Olympic Team) by any means.”

The tour also represents a comeback of sorts for the senior member of the company--Peggy Fleming, who has been away from the circuit for more than two decades.

“I just started skating again a few months ago,” she says. “I have a happy, healthy lifestyle at home--I run and lift weights--but I needed to get used to spinning and stretching.

“I’m not coming back for a cause, for people over 40 or anything like that. I love the fantasy of skating--it’s a beautiful sport you can do at any age.”

Fleming has been an ABC Sports commentator since 1981. She lives in Los Gatos with her husband, Dr. Gregory Jenkins, and their two sons--Andy, 14, and Todd, 2.

Fleming finds this tour more glamorous than her last outing. “But,” she says, “the one-night stands are a little harder now. You just get comfortable with the building and the way the lights are, and then you have to leave. But you work out a rhythm, and I’ve been doing that.”

Although skaters say there is no conscious division between the professionals and amateurs and that they are one big happy touring family, there are inevitable differences that age and experience bring.

“It’s a great experience for us, constantly traveling to new venues every night, adjusting to the crowds,” says Yamaguchi, 19, of Fremont, California.

“It can be tiring, but we’re here to have fun. It gives us more confidence, performing so much in front of crowds.”

Says Underhill’s partner, Martini, 30: “It was strange to come back for this tour because now you’re among a bunch of somewhat younger individuals. There’s a certain innocence about it. I’m having fun, but I’m at the end of a very long year--the amateur skaters have done about 25 performances, and I’ve done about three times that by now.”

The pro-am mix is not the only new ingredient on this year’s tour. Collins spent $500,000 on a new sound system and lighting, the latter supervised by Neil Diamond’s Emmy award-winning lighting designer, Marilyn Lowey.

“When you have that luxury, it’s better for the audience,” Martini notes. “And the skater feeds off their enthusiasm.”

That enthusiasm can vary, though. Audiences in the more sophisticated cities--Los Angeles, New York, Boston--relate far better to the Soviets’ classical style, for example, than do Midwesterners. And, Martini recalls, the Doors medley by perennial crowd-pleaser Christopher Bowman fell flat in Baltimore but was well received in New York.

The skaters agree that Los Angeles, along with New York, provides the tour’s toughest audience--mainly because of the wealth of available entertainment and the city’s laid-back attitude.

“It’s a challenge to get them going,” Underhill admits. “If you can get an L.A. audience to go crazy, you know you’re doing something right.”

Not that she and Martini have much cause for concern. Their two numbers, a version of the 1960s Percy Sledge song “When a Man Loves a Woman” and the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” are so steamy that the ice seems in danger of melting.

They have proven so popular on this tour that Collins now has them closing the show.

“That was a bit of a shock,” Underhill says with a laugh. “We thought this was going to be an easy tour. We’re back to pressure, but it’s quite an honor.”

The 1991 Tour of World Figure Skating Champions will be held Friday or Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Great Western Forum , depending on Lakers playoff results . Ticket s are $40 and $25, and are available through Ticketmaster and at the Forum box office. For information, call the Forum at (213) 419-3100.