The dolphins still leap and twist and moonwalk on water, using their flukes like feet. They still slide across platforms, as if they were dancers in "Footloose." The trainers still tell corny jokes and bop to the music as they put the world's most lovable sea creatures through their paces. And everybody still goes: "Awwwww."

But as it unveiled a new dolphin show yesterday, the National Aquarium in Baltimore hoped to add substance to the splash of its most popular enduring attraction, mixing in more education with the fun.

The half-hour show, called "Coastal Connections: Dolphins at Our Shore," emphasizes the habitat and habits of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Audience members saw a little less showmanship from veterans like Chesapeake, Nani and Cobie, but learned more about how to spot the dolphins by dorsal fin, how they communicate and how they snare a meal.

"I feel this [show] is going to be our most effective," said David M. Pittenger, the aquarium's executive director. "You want to raise the consciousness of people. That is what differentiates this program, is its connection to the coast."

Pittenger said that 80 percent of the aquarium's 1.6 million visitors a year live in the Chesapeake Bay region -- but that many aren't aware that thousands of dolphins use the nearby Atlantic to migrate to and from warmer climes.

The new show isn't the only change under way at the aquarium. A $50 million upgrade begun last year will expand the rain forest exhibit, spiff up classrooms, improve the facility's World Wide Web site and provide maintenance on aging buildings over the next decade.

The show also begins as the aquarium is conducting an in-depth study to find out more about what its visitors are learning from its exhibits.

Craig Thomas, the aquarium's curator of marine mammals, said a new dolphin show is developed about every three years to keep audience interest from flagging.

"We wanted to make it more interactive, to show what goes into the creation of these behaviors," Thomas said.

Those "behaviors," which the rest of us might call tricks, look easy -- even when 405-pound Shiloh shimmies backward across the clover-shaped dolphin tank as effortlessly as Michael Jackson moonwalks across stage. But a new dolphin production takes a year to put together. The aquarium's six dolphins practice their new moves daily, learning when to jump, when to swim slowly, when to wave coquettishly at the crowds.

In a preview to demonstrate the way dolphins are trained -- solely through "positive reinforcement," he said -- Thomas showed how the spectacular leaps and twirls begin with a "target" pole with a ball on the end. When the trainer twirls it, the dolphin turns end over end as well. If the trick is done right, the dolphin hears a whistle and gets a treat. If not, the trainer does nothing.

During the latest show, those moves are used to teach as well as to entertain. When Shadow leaps 17 feet to touch his nose to a dangling buoy, trainer Jill Natwick tells the audience that he can hit his mark because dolphins have exceptionally good vision.

Actors Callie Thorne and Toni Lewis, from television's "Homicide: Life on the Street," served as "celebrity" trainers yesterday. But instead of getting the dolphins to do tricks, they showed how to examine Chesapeake and Nani's zipper-like teeth, and rubbed their flukes -- tails -- in the way a veterinarian might do to calm the animals.

Gary and Gina St. Ours of Parkville found the show more substantial than the last one they saw at the aquarium two years ago. "It seemed like more of a learning experience," Gary St. Ours said.

But that wasn't necessarily the case for their 6-year-old son, Matthew. The best part of the show was the flips, he said.

Pub Date: 3/08/99