In the end, his big break required letting his inner dog out. Luckily, James Tuaileva was equal to the task, hunching down on all fours, lifting his leg and sniffing fellow auditioners at a Salt Lake casting call for the movie "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde," which opened to a strong box office July 4.

Last September, producers held a widely-attended audition for dancers to play congressional interns in the film. The movie, which follows former law student turned animal rights activist Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) to Washington, features a dance number in which the interns growl, bark and shake it in front of bemused legislators.

Filmmakers were looking for a certain special something, said Tuaileva.

"We were dogs, we were on the ground. You had to go in there and give it your all," said the 17-year-old Orem resident, looking decidedly uncanine-like in distressed denim and a slightly see-through white button down shirt, his black hair gelled in slick waves.

"You know what, I had nothing to lose. I went all out, I was a dog."

Ultimately, the Timpanogos High School student beat out hundreds of other hopefuls to dance in the 90-second scene. He earned some $700 for the role, which he hopes will be the springboard for a career as diverse as that of the bootylicious crossover queen Jennifer Lopez.

"I really want to be a triple threat," he said, "an actor, a dancer and a singer."

On the heels of his first movie appearance, Tuaileva is performing the role of Chino in a local production of "West Side Story," which opened Aug. 6 at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre.

"West Side Story" director Robinne Booth said she cast Tuaileva in the role of a Shark gang member because of his considerable on-stage charisma and impressive dance moves.

"When he kicks, his knee is flat against his face," Booth said. "I'm talking, this kid can dance. He has a backside shimmy that can stop a clock."

The backside shimmy, toe-touches, pirouettes and leaps are the result of frequent six- to nine-hour practice sessions.

Even in his off time, Tuaileva's body grooves to a silent beat. "Everywhere I go, I'm dancing," he said. "If I'm in the grocery store, I'm cruisin' down the aisles."

A former football, baseball and basketball player, Tuaileva made the unlikely choice four years ago to abandon athletics in favor of ballroom dance and ballet.

His family was supportive, including his father, Joel Tuaileva, a former college football player who encouraged his son to follow his passion.

Even with family encouragement, choosing dance over sports was a gutsy decision, said Derryl Yeager, founder of Salt Lake's Odyssey Dance Theatre.

Yeager said men who choose to pursue a career typically considered the provenance of females face their share of raised eyebrows and ridicule.

"In this day and age, a lot of people don't really look at male dancers as strong characters," he said. "Most guys don't realize that girls really like it when guys can dance. For some reason, they have this image that if I drink beer and watch football, girls love me."

But if the refined, sophisticated man has long been owed his due, pop culture seems to be embracing men who know Prada from Pucci or pirouettes from pliés.

World soccer star David Beckham, for example, has blurred gender stereotypes by slipping into sarongs and painting his finger nails in between matches.

The wild success of the Bravo show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," suggests many believe that machoistic straight men could use a little refining.

A self-described ladies man, Tuaileva said the favorable male-to-female ratio initially attracted him to dance.

He first noticed the girls-in-leotards phenomenon at his sister's hip-hop class at age 10: "I remember going in and it was all girls," he said. "I'm girl crazy. And I was, like, 'I think this is for me.' "

After his first dance class, he realized that his body responded to rhythm in an almost preternatural way. "I was, like, 'where has this been all my lifefi' " he said.

Now, half a decade and dozens of competitions later, Tuaileva hopes to follow his idols: Fred Astaire ("He was the man,") and Gene Kelly ("Dang, those guys were smooth,"), who parlayed fancy footwork into successful cinema careers.

Because dance draws fewer men than women, men have a greater chance of professional success, said Yeager of Odyssey.

Tuaileva's ballet teacher Melanie Doskocil agreed that the teen has the right combination of looks, talent and charisma for stardom.

"If he wants it and he goes for it, he could have anything he wants in the dance world," she said.

Already, Utah Valley State College has offered Tuaileva a ballroom dance scholarship; Yeager would like Tuaileva to be in Odyssey Dance Theatre's professional company.

With simultaneous appearances on the big screen and the stage, Tuaileva said the ever-increasing practice schedules are starting to encroach on other areas of life. Already, he is weighing finishing Timpanogos High School against concurrent high school and college enrollment at UVSC.

"It's kind of hard when you go home and your friends who used to always call you have stopped, because they know you are always dancing," he said.

But, he added, you don't get to be as famous as, say, Justin Timberlake by sitting something out, whether it be choreographing dance routines or barking like a dog at a casting call.

"Sometimes I've wanted to quit. But I'm like, "Duh, James, this is you," he said. "This is your life."

Elyssa Andrus can be reached at 344-2553 or eandrus@heraldextra.com

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.