YouTube Final Scene

Geographic

Dirty Dancing was filmed in Virginia, at the Mountain Lake Hotel. In the film, it is known as "Kellerman's Resort." Dirty Dancing weekends are still offered at the resort today, in the Gazebo. The water scenes were filmed at Lake Lure, which used to be a boy's camp ground. Patrick Swayze stayed in room 232 at Mountain Lake during the filming of the movie. Jennifer Grey and her family stayed in the Virgina cottage. Most of the scenes filmed at Mountain Lake hotel were filmed in the dining room, and the gazebo (Mountain Lake Hotel). Today the gazebo is used today fo many weddings and ceremonies. The scene where Baby finds Penny crying in the kitchen was filmed at the Mountain Lake kitchen, and the lifts praticed in the freezing cold water were also filmed at Mountain Lake. In Tryon, North Carolina the log scene was filmed (Blue Ridge Country). It is belived that the same log that Baby and Johnny were balancing on during practice is now at the Highland Inn Lake Resort in Flat Rock, North Carolina. The cabins that the Kellerman's staff stayed in were demolished relatively soon after the movie came out in theaters. They kept Johnny's room until the summer of 1988 (Mountain Lake Hotel). They used the gym at the camp for the ballroom scenes. The bridge used in the movie was demolished, but the steps above the bridge still remain there today. At the filming location, they had to spray paint the leaves green because it was filmed at the lake in autumn; this caused delays in production.

Biographic

(Johnny Castle) Patrick Wayne Swayze was born on August 18, 1952 in Houston, TX. He attended Houston Jazz Ballet Company,Harkness Ballet Theater School, New York Joffrey Ballet Company, and Eliot Feld Ballet Company that helped him get where he is today (IMDb). He has been in over 24 movies, many television programs, and other appearances. His newest accomplishment has been the A&E pilot "The Beast" where he plays Charles Barker.(2009) Patrick recently has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and remains optimistic about it. He is undergoing treatment at this time, and isn't letting this disease slow him down in any way (People).

(Frances "Baby" Houseman) Jennifer Grey was born on March 26, 1960 in New York City. Both of her parents were in the entertainment industry. She has been in over 28 films, television series, and commercials. She is most well-known for her role in Dirty Dancing. To help her get where Jennifer is today she attended the Dalton School, an elite private school in Manhattan, and studied both dance and acting there. At the age of 19, her first commercial debut was a Dr. Pepper commercial (NNDB). She has recently starred as Daphne on the HBO series John from Cincinnati. She was engaged to Matthew Broderick and Johnny Depp, and later married Clark Greg and they have a daughter named Stella (NNDB).

(Baby's father, Doctor Jake Houseman) Jerry Orbach was born as an only child on October 20, 1935 in New York City. He made his film debut playing a gangster in "Cop Hater" in 1958. Growing up Jerry and his family moved frequently, and settled in Illinois where he went to highschool. He studied drama at the University of Illinois and at Northwestern. He then went to study acting in New York and got constant work in musicals. He worked on trying to get acting roles in TV and movies, but was frequently overlooked because of his musical background. Jerry is most recognized for playing Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series. Jerry accomplished being a Broadway actor, and an off-Broadway actor as well. His first major role was of El Gallo. In the 1980's, he shifted his career to film, and TV to work full-time. Orbach married Marta Curro, and had two sons with her. They later divorced and Jerry remarried to Broadway dancer Elaine Cancilla. He met Elaine while starring in Chicago. Jerry died December 28, 2004 at age 69 of prostate cancer; he had cancer for about ten years.

(Penny Johnson) Cynthia Rhodes is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She was born on November 21, 1956 in Nashville, Tennessee. She is married to Richard Marx, and has been since 1989. Cynthia started her career by working at Opryland USA as a singer and a dancer. At this time, she was still attending high school at Glencliff High School during the 1970's. She played small roles in Flashdance, One from the Heart, Staying Alive, and Saturday Night Fever.


Others that made this film happen:
Kenny Ortega: Kenny is an Emmy award winning producer as well as a director and a choreographer. Ortega began his career working with Gene Kelly, a famous director and choreographer. He then moved on to other projects, working by himself, or without Gene. He won awards for many music videos such as Madonna's "Material Girl" video. He also helped out with Michael Jackson's Dangerous World Tour 1992-1993. He was the choreographer for about one third of the movie's dance scenes. Kenny is well-known today for choreographing Disney's very popular High School Musical, High School Musical Two, and High School Musical Three: Senior Year.

Emile Ardolino: Emile was born on May 9, 1943 in Maspeth, New York. He was a multiple award winning American film producer and director. He focused on movies that have a combination of singing and dancing such as Dirty Dancing and Sister Act. Emile started off as an off-Broadway actor, and then changed over to the other side of the camera...producing. Emile won an Oscar and was nominated over twenty times for his other accomplishments. He died November 20, 1993.

Societal

Dirty Dancing symbolizes the transition from childhood to womanhood. In the beginning of the film, Baby is portrayed as a nearly perfect daughter, planning to join the peace corps. She then is invited to a party, and to get there she needs to cross a bridge. This bridge symbolizes her crossing over into a different type of world. On one side of the bridge she eats quiet, classy dinners with her family and attends dance classes. However, the other side of the bridge is more like a club scene, something that Baby is not used to. Her parents are very traditional, and would like to see her date someone that has the same values as they do. Johnny, Baby's dance instructor, and the one she falls in love with doesn't really have the same values as Baby's parents (Dirty Dancing). In the end they learn to accept Johnny for who he is. Dirty Dancing is particularly an American icon because it signifies the changes made in life, and the different stages that we go through. It also shows that you can go outside of the box a little, and that you don't have to stick to what you know.

Artistic

Dirty Dancing Soundtrack
"Be My Baby"-The Ronettes
"Big Girls Don't Cry"-Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
"Merengue"
"Fox Trot"
"Where Are You Tonight"-Tom Johnston
"Do You Love Me"-The Contours
"Love Man"-Otis Redding
"Stay"-Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
"Hungry Eyes"-Eric Carmen
"Overload"-Zappacosta
"Hey Baby"-Bruce Channel
"De Todo un Poco"-Melon
"Some Kind Of Wonderful"-The Drifters
"These Arms Of Mine"-Otis Redding
"Cry to Me"-Solomon Burke
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"-The Shirelles
"Love Is Strange"-Mickey & Sylvia
"You Don't Own Me"-The Blow Monkeys
"Yes"-Merry Clayton
"In the Still of the Nite"-The Five Satins
"She's Like the Wind"-Patrick Swayze featuring Wendy Fraser
"The Time of My Life"-Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

Quotes

"Go back to your playpen, Baby."

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

"I carried a watermelon."

“Time goes by, life goes on, and all I can think of is why you're gone.”

"I'm gonna do my kind of dancin' with a great partner, who's not only a terrific dancer; somebody who's taught me that there are people willing to stand up for other people no matter what it costs them; somebody who's taught me about the kind of person I wanna be."

"Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."

Historical

Dirty Dancing was directed by Emilie Ardolino, produced by Linda Gottlieb, and written by Eleanor Bergstein. It starts Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Jerry Orbach, and Cynthia Rhodes. Dirty Dancing is a 1987 romance film. Kenny Ortega choreographed the movie's dancing scenes, which is about a third of the movie. Dirty dancing was originally a low-budget film ($5,000,000) by a new studio, and at the time it had no major stars. It became a hit at the box office, and as of 2007, the film has earned $300 million. Dirty Dancing was the first film to sell over a million copies on home video, and the Dirty Dancing soundtrack generated two multi-platinum albums and multiple singles. The soundtrack includes "(I've had) The Time of My Life", which won both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song. It also won a Grammy Award for best duet. Dirty Dancing was released onAugust 21, 1987 and it's running time is 100 minutes. It has won an Acadamey Award for Best Original Song in 1987. At the Golden Globe Awards it won best original song, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture,Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture. At the Grammy awards Dirty Dancing won Best Pop Performance by a Duo, and was nominated for Best Song written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (Hollywood). Filming started on September 5, 1986. The cast only had two weeks of rehearsal, and only had 44 days for filming because it was close to the end of summer. Outside the temperature reached 105 degrees some days, and one day ten of the cast members passed out within twenty-five minutes of filming. Patrick Swayze also inquired an injury during the shooting of the movie. He fell off of the log while filming one of the scenes, and had to be hospitalized. Patrick got fluid drained off of his knee from the swelling. They ended the shooting on October 27, 1986; the film was on budget, as well as on time.