Look out A Chorus Line, here comes Citystep.

Nearly 100 fifth and sixth graders from the Cambridge public schools and 18 Harvard undergraduates danced up a storm last night on stage at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.

But this weekend's three performances of Citystep mean more to the dancers than an ordinary show would. They mark the culmination of a whole year of work.

Every year since 1983, the Citystep dance program has sent Harvard undergraduates into four Cambridge public schools to teach dance for two hours a week. This weekend, the fifth-grade students and their Harvard teachers will show off just what they have been learning all year.

"Citystep has tests just like other classes. This performance is the Citystep test," says Bill H. Berkman '87, the program's executive producer.

The Citystep students passed their exam with flying colors as they acted out a day in the life of a 10-year-old playing hookey from school. Weaving in and out of an oversized erector set for the stage, the kids and their teachers danced their interpretations of events from a city life, ranging from a gang fight to trying on a new pair of shoes.

Questions About Future

However, while the Citystep dancers demonstrated on-stage how successful the year has been, off-stage, serious questions about the program's future remain unanswered.

Citystep founder and current director, Sabrina T. Peck '84 will leave the company after this year, and many participants wonder whether anyone can replace her.

"I don't think anyone is going to have her sense of commitment and drive," says Betsy Kramer '87, a Citystep dancer and teacher.

"The kids don't usually listen to anyone but Sabrina," says Berkman.

Peck founded Citystep as a Harvard undergraduate. After graduation she stayed in Cambridge to keep the program going. "Sabrina tries to make most classes; she sets up the curriculum and gets the teachers into the classes," Berkman says.

Now she says she feels that it is time to move on.

"I am going to New York to help organize a new international arts festival," she says.

The Citystep organizers have selected four students to run the show next year, Peck says, but she declined to identify them.