“7 THINGS I love about the film Dirty Dancing”

This week's "7 THINGS!"

“7 THINGS I love about the film Dirty Dancing”

            The first thing I need to point out, is that if you haven’t seen the film, “Dirty Dancing” then it will be very hard for us to be friends. I feel it’s only fair to say this up front. I LOVE it and I mean LOVE it! I still listen to the soundtrack in the car, and on a rainy/grey Sunday afternoon enjoy nothing more than popping it on, slipping under the duvet and laughing, singing, and crying until the sun comes out again… Oh, and I can watch it on a loop, so if I fall asleep, no worries – I just pick up where I left off viewing. What do I LOVE about it? Well, here are just “7 THINGS” but there are many, many more…

This Week’s “7 THINGS”

1.     The time in my life when I watched it. We all have those movies, songs, books that with no more than a burst, a visual or a line, take us back to a memory so poignant, it can fill us with extreme joy or despair! I watched Dirty Dancing in the flat where I lived in Hope Cove – Devon. I was nursing a broken heart and rented the video from a shop in Kingsbridge. Laying on the sofa with a box of tissues to mop at my distress and a big old bag of Revels – I was transported out of my gloom and right onto that dance floor. My heart felt a little restored by the thought that there was a Patrick Swayze out there somewhere in the world waiting for me! …and there was, the fact that it took me until my late thirties to find him is a whole other story. I can’t hear any of the songs without picturing that girl so full of tears and Revels – feeling like her world was coming to an end whereas my greatest adventures were all ahead of me.

2.     The music! The soundtrack is just glorious! It’s eclectic – everything from The Ronettes ‘Be Me Baby’ which is an absolute classic and perfect for singing into your hairbrush when you think everyone has left the house. ‘She’s Like the Wind’ by Patrick Swayze which is my go-to belt it out number after one or two Bacardi Breezers, and of course the grand finale number ‘The Time of My Life’ by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. I can’t hear this without getting the same tight bunch of excitement in the base of my gut that I felt when I first watched the film! It’s SO good it makes me happy! The ending of the film and this song are so closely entwined all it takes to make me feel the buzz of excitement is one bar of this beauty and my feet are a tapping, my fingers a clicking and my heart a pounding!

3.     Patrick Swayze. Nuff said. Patrick Swayze!!! Swoooooon. Ah Patrick, forever immortalised as Johnny, the good looking, suave, kind, big hearted, misunderstood guy from the wrong side of the tracks whose swivelling hips, gliding feet, magnetic stare, and did I mention those hips? Were enough to send a teenage girl all of a dither! Add to that he also had the keys to that 1957 Chevrolet BelAir sport coupe and let’s just say he might just, for the duration of the movie been the man of my dreams.

4.     A simpler time – sometimes when life feels a little complicated. I like to retreat into this simpler time with the Houseman family on vacation at Kellerman’s resort. Where picket fenced walkways, board games, dancing lessons, full skirts, amateur shows, and boating in the sun were the order of the day. White pumps, cardis resting on shoulders, lipstick, evening bags, kitten heels, big band music played live, fancy buffets and rainy nights as a balm to the sunny days... There was no electronic wizardry, no ping of message/text/social media interrupting supper. It felt calm…

5.     Dated glory. It was a film made in the 80’s but set in the 50’s and wasn’t afraid to shine a spotlight on the less than savoury aspects of life at this time. Race, class, educational opportunity, freedoms, and advancement for women and most timely; the issues around abortion. At the time, based on my own understanding that a woman should be absolute mistress of her own body, it felt unimaginable the lengths a single, poor woman in this era had to go to. And now I feel foolish and sad, that current events suggest a retrograde step when it comes to my belief that a woman should be absolute mistress of her own body…

6.     How all my girlfriends love it too – it’s a film that unifies us. This movie, along with “Grease”, “Back to The Future” and others, ones that we all saw, and all remember. Films that played in the movie theatres at the same time, and we bought tickets for and queued to watch. Other than video rentals, there was not for us the bewildering choice of digital access via various sites, if you wanted to see that film, you went to the cinema along with everyone else! These were the flicks that influenced the music charts, and which helped shape our formative years. “I carried a watermelon”, and “nobody puts baby in the corner” – these but two lines that I guarantee we will trot out when appropriate and will still make us laugh. Not that we are laughing at the tired lines, but because of what they represent. – this film and this time in our lives.

7.     The first time I put myself in a character’s (dancing) shoes. It was a sexy film without being overt. It suited my nervous inquisitiveness about sex. It was sanitised, quaint and delicate, but still powerful. The scenes where Baby Houseman watches her peers dancing provocatively, her shock, interest and fascination mirrored my own. The lake scene where she is hoisted up over her lover’s head and they tumble down into the water… it was beautiful, sexy, and yet almost fairytale – the perfect bridge for a teen like me who was interested in the adult world and yet only ready to dip a toe in, not quite ready for the harsh realism of dating and relationships.

For all things Amanda Prowse - to buy her books or pre-order her memoir “Women Like Us” head to www.amandaprowse.com Thank you X