They make their move, and it's big

When was the last time you saw a dancer on stage who didn't look like Boston ballerina Jennifer Gelfand or even A-list star Jennifer Lopez?

''You just don't see it," says Keku'i Ledward of Jamaica Plain.

Fellow dancer Marina Wolf Ahmad, also of JP, says, ''I was always the fattest person in the studio."

Now they have found a place to perform as part of the Phat Fly Girls, a new multicultural hip-hop troupe based in JP that moves big women out of the back row.

Founder Ahmad almost didn't get past step one. At 28, she tried a hip-hop class at a San Francisco gym. Self-conscious and frustrated, ''I actually left the class after 20 minutes and watched," she recalls. If the teacher hadn't encouraged her to return, she might have stopped right then, she says. Instead, she fell in love with dance.

But during a college certificate program, her discomfort returned.

''I started realizing that, you know, people aren't treating me very nice here. And the teachers are kind of not giving me the kind of attention that I want. They're not treating me the same," she says. ''It didn't take me long. I was like OK, this is about me being fat." Ahmad rejects the term ''overweight" because it suggests there's an ideal weight for her.

Some would have buckled. Ahmad got mad. And organized. ''It wasn't just me," she says. ''There really needed to be some sort of fundamental shift in the culture." So in 2001, she started Big Moves USA in San Francisco.

Big Moves produces shows, organizes the Phat Fly Girls and a Bay Area modern troupe, and educates people on the benefits of size diversity in dance. Ahmad moved to Boston in 2004, and the East Coast branch of Phat Fly Girls debuted in a concert called ''Big Time" in the Dance Complex in Cambridge in April.

Some opportunities for heavy dancers do exist; Ann Norris of the national group Dance USA says that a few non-mainstream companies like the Brooklyn-based Urban Bush Women hire dancers of all shapes and sizes. ''Not everyone wants to see pencil-thin ballerinas," she says.

But acceptance isn't the norm. Sharon Montella, who runs the Boston hip-hop troupe SK2hop, says that ''absolutely" the dance world tends to discriminate against heavier people. Hiring them is ''unusual to say the least."

To counter that, a few companies focus on heavy dancers: Canada's Big Dance (modern), The Fatimas in Los Angeles (belly dance), and Voluminous Dancers in Cuba (ballet).

Such groups provide an accepting and comfortable environment. For Dorchester resident Alicia Greene, the Phat Fly Girls are ''completely different" from her past experiences ''because my own beauty [is] celebrated."

She started dancing as part of her theater training; now, she says, ''I actually see myself as a dancer."

Ledward was equally excited to find ''a space where I could dance." She considers the group empowering.

''It's true that seeing larger dancers in action is powerful," Ahmad says. However, she wants audiences to see the Phat Fly Girls as art, not art therapy. To judge by the response at a July performance, she is succeeding.

A capacity crowd packed the Milky Way Lounge and Lanes in JP for a ''fat-positive" revue featuring the Phat Fly Girls and San Francisco's Big Burlesque.

Phat Fly's members sauntered out in tight outfits, some incorporating hot pants and midriff tops to perform a fierce routine celebrating the larger woman's body with songs that included Sir Mix-a-Lot's ''Baby Got Back." The dancers dripped with attitude. The crowd roared.

''They were fabulous," said Dana Moser, a JP resident. ''It's a kind of political work [but] at the same time it's fun."

''It's great to see a show that, like, thumbs its nose at Madison Avenue," said Maurice Rucker, the Milky Way's production coordinator, who was working the door.

''You've got these white guys up in towers telling us what's beautiful."

Although the Phat Fly Girls are a semiprofessional and part-time troupe -- its members have day jobs in publishing, teaching, and health care, among other fields -- they keep busy. Tentative 2006 performances are scheduled for Toronto, Maine, Oregon, Chicago, and Boston, including a potential half-time show at a women's football game. A handful of new dancers will join the group next month, and Ahmad wants to find a monthly Boston nightclub gig.

Big Moves Boston, the umbrella organization for Phat Fly Girls, is looking for singers who can dance for their upcoming production, "Fat: The Musical." Auditions are Sept. 19.