10 Best Dirty Dancing Moments
The now-defunct vacation resorts and bungalows of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York were once thriving summer retreats for wealthy urban dwellers looking for refuge from the hustle and bustle of city life. Until the late 1950s, the picturesque mountain belt was the preferred vacation spot for millions across the East Coast and was especially popular with Jewish Americans who originally flocked there in the early 1900s to avoid the discrimination they faced at other hotels and beaches in the city. Nestled deep in the lush green mountains, the resorts of the Catskills offered guests a blissful escape from real life, a chance to spend days longing by the pool or lake, taking dance lessons under the veranda, and ending the evening with dinner and a show. For decades, they were the epicenter of social life that embedded itself into our cultural consciousness and birthed American stand-up comedy, a magical place where, under the spell of hazy summer nights and days, anything felt possible.
Dirty Dancing, released in the summer of 1987, takes place in those mountains, at a fictional resort named Kellerman’s, based on the real resort where screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein spent summers with her family. Set in 1963, just as the heyday of the Catskill Mountain resorts was beginning to wane, Dirty Dancing tells the story of Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman (Jennifer Grey), who embarks on a summer of self-discovery through her romance with dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze). A coming of age story that explores issues of class and women’s rights, Dirty Dancing is timeless in its portrayal of the fleeting moments of youthful summers and first love.
With endlessly quotable lines and a soundtrack of iconic tunes, Dirty Dancing became an instant classic, garnering praise from critics and audiences alike. Its signature song, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Nearly 40 years later, Dirty Dancing has remained one of the greatest musical films ever made.
In this list for The Film Magazine, we present the greatest moments in the film, from sensual slow dancing to emotional declarations of forgiveness and love. These are the 10 Best Dirty Dancing Moments.
10. Baby Sees Johnny Dance for the First Time
When Baby first arrives with her family at Kellerman’s, an upscale resort in the Catskill Mountains, it is abundantly clear that she is like a fish out of water. Although Baby has certain goals for her future – she wants to join the Peace Corps – it is obvious that she’s awkward and uncomfortable in her own skin, never raising her voice or disagreeing with her father, Jake (Jerry Orbach), who is like her best friend. She’s sheltered and it isn’t until she sees Johnny up close for the first time that something awakens inside her.
After Neil (Lonny Prince), the grandson of Kellerman’s owner Max Kellerman (Jack Weston), tries to flirt with Baby by getting her to dance the mambo with him, Johnny and his dance partner Penny (Cynthia Rhodes) appear in the middle of the dance floor. Their routine blows everyone else’s out of the water and it’s clear how well-trained they are, how passionately they feel about dance. Swayze and Rhodes, who are both trained classical dancers, are incredible to watch, their skills captured by director Emile Ardolino’s pitch-perfect framing. The look on Jennifer’s Grey’s face as she watches them, the way her eyes darken, her lips slightly parted, encapsulates the nearly indescribable feeling of lusting after someone for the very first time.
This moment also seeks to highlight one of the main themes of the film. When Max witnesses Penny and Johnny dancing by themselves, he violently motions for them to stop and to teach the guests to dance instead. Johnny and Penny are, after all, employees. When Baby asks who Johnny and Penny are, Neil practically sneers at them saying, “Oh, them? They’re the dance people.” This idea that Penny and Johnny, and the entertainment staff in general, are somehow lesser beings than the wealthy patrons of Kellerman’s plays a huge part in the film as it proceeds.
Recommended for you: 10 Best Bridget Jones’s Diary Moments
9. Baby and Her Dad Talk
One of the things that lends a significant degree of credibility to Dirty Dancing is the presence of veteran stage and screen actor, Jerry Orbach, who plays Baby’s cardiologist father Jake. When Dirty Dancing was released, Orbach was mainly known on the stage and was still a few years removed from his beloved voice performance as the candle stick Lumiere in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as well as his decade-long stint on the original ‘Law and Order’ TV show, which began in 1992. In Dirty Dancing, Orbach is subtle but powerful, and he elevates an already superb film, giving a genuinely heartfelt performance as a parent forced to accept that his child is all grown up.
One incredibly potent moment takes place after Jake realizes that Baby lied to him about using his money to pay for Penny’s botched abortion, which was illegal in the US at the time. After Jake nurses Penny back to health, Jake tells Baby that his disappointment in her stems from how she lied to him and hid things from him. “You’re not the person I thought you were, Baby,” he tells her. Their relationship is further strained when Baby chooses to admit, in front of everyone, that she was with Johnny the night a guest’s wallet was supposedly stolen (something she does to clear Johnny’s name). It’s the truth, but it further disappoints her father because he told her not to see him anymore. In turn, he barely speaks to her in the following scenes.
Eventually, Baby finds her father sitting by himself under a pavilion, overlooking the lake. He is silent as Baby says her peace, explaining that, yes, maybe she lied to him, but he also lied to her. With tears in her eyes, Baby calls her father out for being a hypocrite, for assuming the worst in Johnny simply because he’s poor. She calls his entire world view into question, a view she used to share but now knows is bigoted and wrong.
Before leaving, Baby tells her father, “I love you, Daddy, and I know I let you down, but you let me down too.”
Orbach turns his head as she goes, his lips trembling, trying to hold back his tears. Orbach wisely lets Grey command the scene, but it is his silent listening, his restrained emotion, that sells it. This moment represents one of the many ways Dirty Dancing subtly addresses class and privilege. It also exposes the superficial nature of the kind of person her father expects her to be, and Baby’s push against it: to do what is actually right instead of what appears to be right. Confronting her father is one of the final steps in Baby’s evolution, bravely standing up for what she believes in.
