The Broadway Dance Center, which has shaped the dreams - and the legs - of Broadway-bound hoofers for more than two decades, may lose its home at 221 West 57th Street, becoming the latest example of how the heated real estate market is squeezing arts groups in the city.

The studio, one of the largest in the city, has been locked in a series of legal battles with its landlord, the Extell Development Company, since early September, when it received a notice of default on its lease. Studio representatives say the landlord is trying to push them out to develop the property; the landlord says it is an internal dispute over how to secure the building and nothing more.