Bruno is afraid of performing in public.

Doris, while pretending to be a hooker, meets a real hooker named Tracy, and tries to help her out.

A big star, Melinda MacNeil, is in town and everyone goes ga-ga, except Monty.

Monty tries to get Bruno to cash in on his songwriting abilities.

Budget cutbacks prompts the School Board to fire one of the dance school's teachers.

Julie's dad is getting remarried, and Julie does not like it one bit. Also, Leroy tries out for a touring dance troupe.

A guest speaker to the school becomes sweet upon Lydia, and gives the kids an assignment so he can come back to see her. He takes her out but she's not impressed by his flashy lifestyle, and is even less so when he criticizes the work the kids do for the assignment, and is especially tough on Leroy. He also criticizes the education they receive at the school. Shorofsky teaches Bruno how to conduct.

When Bruno gets the chance to audition for Julliard, he finds himself caught between the desires of his father and Shorofsky. Shorofsky feels that Bruno isn't ready for Julliard yet. During the audition, Bruno chooses to play his mother's favorite song instead of the piece he originally chose, even though he knew it would destroy his chances of being accepted to Julliard.

The kids suspect the ballet teacher is prejudiced against black students. They protest by stopping whatever they are doing and standing silent. It isn't til Miss Grant talks with this teacher that they know for sure that she feels black dancers don't have what it takes to be great. She is shown how wrong she's been during a performance by Stephanie. Bruno must escort a young musical prodigee around the school.

Coco tries to impress a producer with an audition in a diner. She manages to get a screen test, and tells the gang it all went well. Later she comes clean and admits she was terrible. Doris tries to loose weight and be perfect (like Coco) and collapses in Miss Sherwood's class. In telling Doris the truth about her screen test, Coco manages to come to terms with herself.

Doris falls in love with a singer she meets at a dance club where her, Bruno and Leroy go to observe the country western scene. They are looking to make a "unique" version of Romeo and Juliet for dance class. Bruno dates a 30 year old woman he meets at the same club. Sherwood meets someone through a dating service.

Troy Phillips falls in love with Julie. When they fall asleep studying, he tells everyone that they slept together but he didn't realize what he was telling everyone was being taken in the wrong way.(Inspiring Bruno's classic line, "You're supposed to be tutoring him on the joys of harmony, not sex!") A picture of Mr. Reardon is printed in a gossip tabloid magazine by a "so called" friend of Reardon's who will do anything to sell a story, even steal the photo from David.

Doris alienates her friends when she becomes obsessive over the planning of this year's "Friendship Day". Bruno's father and Julie's mother mistakenly believe that Bruno and Julie plan to have sex.

Doris is auditioning to star in a show. She falls and bumps her head and has an elaborate dream sequence in which she is on a quest to become a star. The school campus is set up with a ""yellow brick road"" path ""Dottie"" must follow and encounters several interesting characters (her fellow classmates in costume) along the way. Debbie Allen (the dance instructor/choreographer) plays the ""good witch"" and Mrs. Sherwood is the ""wicked witch.""

When Doris' ex-boyfriend, Sandy Gordon, who was expelled for his drinking problem, is allowed readmission into the School of the Arts, she's overjoyed until she learns that he was hiding his continuing battle with alcoholism from her.

When Morloch learns about Leroy's previous track success, he tries to persuade him to go for a college track scholarship, much to Lydia's dismay. Meanwhile, while doing character research for a role as an elderly woman in her acting class, Doris finds an older man falling for her.

When the kids discover that Danny has leukemia, Doris makes her biggest effort to convince him to listen to his doctor and fight the disease. Meanwhile, Lydia decides to show the kids how to make a non-dancer look good in a dance number.

Blind substitute teacher Jim Hamilton returns to the School of the Arts and expresses a romantic interest in Lydia.