Welcome to my blog celebrating my love for Dirty Dancing, which is thirty-five years old this summer! (It was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1987, and had its theatrical release in the US on August 21st that same year.)

You know I love an important piece of romantic comedy history, so please indulge me waxing lyrical about the hundred minutes of pure brilliance that is this film.

Let me begin by saying there are few films I love more than Dirty Dancing.

In fact, I think the only two films I like more are Pretty in Pink and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (so apparently the golden age of movies for me is 1986 to 1991).

My friends joke that if a film as no romance in it, I’m not interested (only 99% true) – I’ve never felt more seen than when I read the introduction to Bolu Babalola’s wonderful story collection Love in Colour and she began with

“To say that I love ‘love’ would probably be akin to me saying that I am quite fond of inhaling oxygen. Love is the prism through which I view the world.” 

Bolu Babalola

Love stories offer so many possibilities to me, and Dirty Dancing, through that wonderful storyline of a summer romance, in which the heroes of the story don’t even like each other to begin with (never thought I’d reference Pride and Prejudice in relation to Dirty Dancing, but here is where two masterpieces collide!) coupled with the best kind of uplifting end to a movie: a dance scene (!!!), will never get old. 

I recently got to see it on the big screen for an anniversary screening (twice…) and, despite the fact I rewatch it every few months (and listen to the soundtrack on repeat, because it is, in my opinion, one of the best film soundtracks of all time – I don’t even care if (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life is now the anthem of weddings and family parties, I actively look forward to it and going with the pretense of jumping up into somebody’s arms, as if I could ever have the finesse of Jennifer Grey), it made me fall in love with all over again.

Also, I completely forgot, as Grey narrates over the beginning scene of her and her family driving up to the Catskills in New York for a three-week holiday (though, in reality, actually Virginia and North Carolina), that the film is set in 1963. Does this mean it could technically be classed as a period drama, seeing as it was released in 1987? (Yes, and I will continue to tell myself so, because it makes me love it a little more.) 

Though, in all seriousness, I always forget it’s supposed to be set in the early 1960s – apart from a few references and some of the costumes, it could be kind of timeless. (Also it does seemingly flit between the 1960s, when it was supposed to be set, and the 1980s, when it was filmed, for the style and visuals.)

Aside from the romance and coming-of-age nature of the film, it also raises social issues, such as the division of classes and safe and legal access to abortion – something which seems all the more pertinent and important in wake of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade. 

Period drama or not, what makes me love Dirty Dancing even more is that it first languished in a bit of film development hell, before only having a limited release as it was thought it would bomb so the production company, Vestron, wanted to make sure they could put it direct-to-video as soon as possible.

They shouldn’t have worried.

It was so popular, they expanded the theatrical release, and it was apparently the first film to sell more than a million copies on home video. There’s been a stage show, a TV remake, a prequel (I very much love the prequel, I just kind of wish it hadn’t been marketed as Dirty Dancing 2, because I feel like that made people predisposed to dislike it), and supposedly, a sequel in the works in which Jennifer Grey will reprise her role as Baby Houseman and also produce (though I can’t bear the thought of Dirty Dancing without Patrick Swayze, who passed away in 2009). 

Dirty Dancing was written by Eleanor Bergstein, and was based on her own experiences of holidaying at a Catskills resort as a child with her own family.

Whilst her parents golfed, Bergstein said, she would spend all her time in the dance studios, and would win dance competitions, dancing the mambo and cha chas. She would dirty dance in basements with friends, telling the Greenwich International Film Festival that as long as she worked hard at school and went to college, her parents never minded. 

I don’t remember when I first watched the movie – though I think it may be at a friend’s house who adored Patrick Swayze more than anything when we were teenagers, and I remember her being devastated on the bus to high school when we heard on the radio that he had passed away – but for as long as I can remember, it’s been one of those comfort movies that never fails to uplift when it’s on, despite the darker elements of the plot – in fact, perhaps because of it, and the way they are all navigated and explicitly dealt with. 

Patrick Swayze teaching Jennifer Grey to dance, lifting her up in the lake, and coming back to utter the inimitable line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner!” induces such a sense of euphoria. The comedy of Baby’s sister Lisa singing her song in the talent show practice with ridiculous actions, and the sliminess of Neil Kellerman, grandson of Max Kellerman who owns the resort, never fail to elicit a response. I never look at a watermelon in a supermarket without thinking “I carried a watermelon!”

The film ends on such a perfect crescendo, of course soundtracked by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley, that I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it. It’s a cult classic for a reason, and, in my opinion, is definitely a period romance. 

Happy birthday Dirty Dancing, thank you for always giving me the time of my life! (Sorry, couldn’t resist…

I’m currently reading comedian Katy Brand’s book I Carried A Watermelon: Dirty Dancing and Me, which is so fun and nostalgic, so I recommend for anyone who is also a huge fan of Johnny and Baby and Kellerman’s!