High Life: A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : For Budding Ballerinas, It’s a One and a Tutu : Dance: Two teens hope to enhance their fledgling careers--and their life experience--by spending part of their summer studying in San Francisco.

Neither Lisa Cheley nor Amanda Cramp looked forward to spending 15 hours a week this summer bouncing back and forth between dance studios for lessons. Instead, the teen-agers decided to concentrate their efforts--and take a vacation at the same time.

Cheley and Cramp, who were students in the classical dance department of the Orange County High School of the Arts this past year, began their studies Monday at the San Francisco School of Ballet.

“Going away from home and studying in a professional atmosphere gives you a better idea of what the ballet world is like,” said Cramp, who lives in Cypress.

The pair turned down offers from the Joffrey Ballet School, the School of American Ballet, the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Boston Ballet to spend six weeks studying in San Francisco.

“There’s a good variety of styles (at the San Francisco school) because all of the teachers come from totally different backgrounds,” Cramp said.

Both girls began dancing early in life--but by taking tap lessons, not ballet.

Cheley, who recently completed her sophomore year at Los Alamitos High School, began tap dancing at 7, but switched to ballet two years later.

Cramp, who will be a senior this fall at Los Alamitos, studied tap five years before her first ballet class at age 10.

This summer won’t mark the teen-agers’ first experience with the world of professional ballet. Cheley, who lives in Westminster, has performed in “The Nutcracker Suite” with the Joffrey Ballet in New York, the San Francisco Ballet and the Long Beach Ballet.

Last summer, she studied at the Joffrey Ballet school.

“It was a really strong program with a lot of classes and great teachers,” she said.

This summer, however, Cheley decided the San Francisco program better suited her needs.

“I’m young and want to try new places,” she said. “San Francisco is closer. It’s convenient, and I’ve heard good things about it.”

Cramp’s performances this year included an appearance in the Long Beach Ballet’s production of “Nutcracker.” During the school year, she balanced a full academic schedule at Los Alamitos with ballet and modern dance classes at the OCHSA on the Los Alamitos campus. She also took ballet classes in Long Beach and Costa Mesa and taught two beginning ballet classes in Cypress.

Cramp spent last summer in the San Francisco program and decided to return this year and room with Cheley “because it has a wonderful, intensive program, and I really liked the teachers.”

Cramp said the program’s approximately 250 students, ranging in age from 3 to 19 and coming from around the world, are assigned class levels based on ability.

“You take the placement class with people your own age,” she said. “It’s extremely nerve-racking.”

Students are required to participate in only two classes a day, but they are invited to attend lower-level classes in their spare time.

The girls are staying in dormitories at San Francisco State, where four floors have been reserved for visiting dance students between the ages of 12 and 18.

“Chaperons are there to take care of us, but they only do as much as necessary,” Cramp said.

Weekends and evenings are free for sightseeing, and Cramp said last summer she visited many tourist spots.

“The city is relatively safe, and the transportation system is wonderful,” she said. “I liked Chinatown because there were a lot of different shops with basically the same things, but for different prices.”

Cramp also said she liked the Twin Peaks area because “we got up there and could see the whole city. . . . Then about 10 minutes later, the fog rolled in.”

Both Cheley and Cramp expect the summer program will help them on their way to professional dance careers. “I hope to get stronger and (a) better technique,” Cheley said, “and to (become known at) the school.”

Said Cramp: “Most company apprentices come from the school. Some students are invited to stay year-round at the end of the summer.

“I’m going there to decide whether this is what I really want to do with my life.”

Cramp said she has continued dancing because “I found something I could do and enjoy. There’s a whole dance world out there that’s big and exciting.”