THE HOTTEST LEGS IN TOWN

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From the moment Contact began previews for its sold-out run at Lincoln Center last fall, the buzz was electric: Deborah Yates, as The Girl in the Yellow Dress, was setting the stage on fire. As the dazzling blonde who mesmerizes everyone at an after-hours swing-dance club, she captivates the imagination of a desolate ad exec who has just botched his own suicide attempt. Mysterious and elusive, Yates is the embodiment of erotic allure, the very incarnation of desire.

An original "dance play" with sexy swing music and a surprising number of laughs, Contact moves to the larger Vivian Beaumont Theater this month to qualify for what is expected to be a raft of Tony Award nominations. In any case, Yates's stardom seems assured: with looks like Kim Basinger, legs like Cyd Charisse, and moves that make grown men weep, how can she lose? A native Texan and former Rockette who's been dancing since she was five, Yates graduated from Southern Methodist University. A statuesque five feet nine inches, she lives in Manhattan with her Doberman pinscher, Deacon. She's even smart, with a MENSA card to vouch for her superior I.Q. But in high school she had braces, wore glasses, played flute in the band, and was "very brainy, which makes you very uncool. I wasn't popular enough to get elected cheerleader," she says ruefully. "I would get elected secretary of the history club, which was not exactly going to get you a date for the prom." If they could see her now ...

LESILE BENNETTS

VIVIAN BEAUMONT CARPENTRY DEPARTMENT