Until recently there was a website where two guys recorded their weekly tennis matches in which they vied for the right to be the (purely imagined) boyfriend of ballerina Amanda Schull.

Odd, yes. But it’s an interesting illustration of the effect that the Hawaii-born dancer has on people. Schull, who shot to national fame five years ago when she starred in the Hollywood movie Center Stage, has an ethereal beauty and star impact that jumps out whether she’s on stage or celluloid.

This summer the Punahou grad is back home and bringing it to the stage with Ballet Hawaii’s production of Coppelia.

This is an unusual summer treat for Honolulu audiences. Along with the full ballet comes a live orchestra and visiting performers along with Schull and other San Francisco Ballet dancers, including principal Joan Boada, who also happens to be Schull’s boyfriend.

“It has all of the best elements,” says Ballet Hawaii’s artistic director Pam Taylor-Tongg. “It’s a very big deal.”

Coppelia, the story of Dr. Coppelius and his amazing wind-up dolls that come to life, is considered the jewel of the classical ballet repertoire. And its theatrical nature is perfect for Schull, who is known for her dramatic dance style.

“She’s an actress,” says John Landovsky, her former teacher at the Hawaii State Ballet. “She has a strong personality on stage and that’s attractive. It makes for a performance that is big and exciting.”

Another plus for Schull is that she gets to dance with boyfriend Boada. The couple has been together on and off — “you know how these things go,” she says — for about five years.

“He’s big stuff,” she says of Boada, a Cuban native who defected to France 11 years ago when he was 18. “I’m lucky to have him.”

The opportunity to dance together doesn’t usually come along because Boada is a principal in the San Francisco Ballet and Schull is in the company corps. Schull points out with humor that in a recent production of Romeo and Juliet, Boada was Romeo and she was a harlot.

In Coppelia they dance the lead roles of two spatting lovers.

Aside from thinking that Schull has “one of the best jumps I’ve seen in a girl,” Boada says he enjoys Schull’s laid-back spirit.

“We have fun,” Schull agrees. “Sometimes too much fun. We get the giggles and have to stop.”

Like the time Schull ran across the floor to Boada for what was supposed to be a dramatic lift — her heels clicked together and they both went down in a heap.

“That ended rehearsal for awhile,” she says, laughing.

Self-deprecating descriptions aside, Schull is a source of inspiration for young Hawaii dancers.

As they took time out from rehearsal last week, Jennifer Laws, Sarah-Lee Chun and Iris Garcia all agreed that it’s totally “cool” to have Schull in town.

“She’s, like, good at everything; she’s perfect,” says 12-year-old Jennifer.

“Yeah, she makes it look like it’s really easy,” adds Iris.

And easy it is not, the trio exclaim.

The 26-year-old Schull has been dancing for as long as she can remember. One of her first performance memories is as a cake-bearer in Nutcracker when she was just 3 or 4 years old.
Landovsky remembers Schull as a feisty individual and, ah, Amanda, he says there was a little bit of a lazy streak in those early years. That all changed, however, he says, after she went to a competition in Mississippi that is like the Olympics of the ballet world. Then she saw what ballet could be and got serious.

After attending Indiana University, Schull won a place with the San Francisco Ballet in 1999. It was there that a Hollywood scout spotted her and knew he’d found the lead female star for Center Stage.

Schull’s star quality shone through on the big screen — particularly in her memorable red-tutu’ed finale — and the film earned her quite a following. Schull is touched by the young dancers who tell her she is their inspiration. And she is amused — if not slightly bemused — by the Internet fan sites, including those two tennis-playing Romeos.

The prospect of a film career obviously lingers. Schull has been offered other roles, although she’s not sure if she has what she calls the Hollywood “hunger.” She’s also tossing up the possibility of broadcast journalism and has been finishing up her degree via correspondence.

But for now, her dance career still comes first.

“I’d like to dance as long as it’s still fun,” she says.

There is a romantic view of a dancer’s life — the glamour of performing and the weeks spent on tour in places like Paris — but it’s demanding work.

“It’s tough,” Schull says. “You wake up in the morning and have to get to work early to stretch and … take class and rehearse and then we perform, and sometimes I don’t get home until 11:30 or 12 at night and then I have to ice, I have to sew my shoes, I have to take a hot bath. I have to do all of that, and then you wake up in what seems like way too few hours later and start all over again.”

And the physical demands are intense. Schull recently had cortisone injections in her spine to help her recovery from a back injury. And the battering that a dancer’s feet can take is obvious as Schull meticulously applies the Second Skin and bandages to her toes before she dons her pointe shoes.

“A lot of the time out on the stage we are in pain and we aren’t allowed to show that to the audience,” she says.

Her time off comes a couple of times a year when she returns home to Hawaii. This summer her entire family is together in town, and Schull says she’s spending a lot of time playing “soccer mom” with her nieces and nephews. They’re hitting the beach and Schull is sharing her new passion for beading with her niece.

Even her black poodle Rupert is here, happily trotting around the studio as Schull rehearses.

“I really love San Francisco, it’s a beautiful city, but every time I step off a plane here,” she says, “I exhale, I relax.”

Ballet Hawaii’s Coppelia will be at the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Aug. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Aug. 21 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available at the Blaisdell Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Times. They are priced at $25, $40 and $55, with discounts available for students, senior citizens and military. To charge-by-phone, call toll free at 1-877-750-4400 or log on to www.ticketmaster.com. For group sales information, call Ballet Hawaii at 521-8600.