Dirty Dancing

Also known as, "you can take the gal out of the years, and the teenage dancer is still alive."

I watched the 1987 movie again the other night.  I was struck by how timeless certain aspects of that movie are.

Socio-economic disparities, i.e. classism.

Music and dancing (especially by young people).

Sex and the pull of jealousy.

Abortions that aren't legal and can hurt young women.

Young adults when they learn the fallibility of their parents.

The horrible 1950s and early 1960s at summer family camps, (well, we hope those are all over now.)

Love in young people.

Music before Rock and Roll with some fabulous dance moves (which I never did!)

Censorship such that many times I've seen the movie on TV where all that had to do with the abortion was cut, so it made very little sense.

Young people who move with beauty and strength and don't have a clue how wonderful that is.

The forerunners musical youth movies, West Side Story (1961) and Grease, (1978) included teens singing and dancing.  By 1987 in Dirty Dancing the characters don't sing...just dance.  The YouTube link below is I Had The Time of My Life, that won an Emmy by Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes.  This was the beginning of Patrick Swayze's career also.

Here's the final 6:48 minutes of the film, the very best!  However it does leave out where Johnny said he'd learned a lot from his partner (Jennifer Grey!)  Go have a bit of The Time of My Life!

I remember how my life changed in the 60's with Rock and Roll, and how we danced somewhat like this.

Without a dance choreographer, our groups never danced in step, and being well before disco dancing in the 70s, a star couple didn't do the moves in front of everyone.   And none of the music in this movie was Rock!

But in my life our attitudes changed - suddenly the "proper" things we were raised with weren't as real as other aspects of life and love, and we got looser and more relaxed. Perhaps all teens have that sensation.

I also remember how I felt when I looked into another person's eyes and felt incredible emotions for the first time.

The movie jumps the 30 years between the cusp of the 50-60s and the late 80s.  When the movie came out, it already brought nostalgia for me because I (ahem) was in my 40s.

Now I'm in my 74th summer.  And I remember being 16 in 1958.  And I loved to dance to music like this.  But the music in the movie was pretty narrowly selected to avoid all Rock and Roll, while Elvis was actually part of the scene at that time.  And of course the big dance piece in the video above was written for the movie in 1987, so didn't exist for the times of the movie.

But I did have the time of my life!

I still can sway to the music.

Memories of dances

No hat, no hair down, no dark shoes...and not me!

The girls invited the boys to the prom in the winter time, for four years of high school.  The boys invited the girls to the spring proms.

This was life in a private school in St. Louis in the late 1950s.

So we girls got to dress pretty twice, as well as figure out which boy would be a good dancer.  There were also dance cards where we'd have many dances with other boys besides our dates.

I had 8 prom dresses in high school  I don't remember most of them.  I also learned how to use makeup.  And go to beauty salons to have my hair done.  (I never did the pedi-mani routine, and still laugh to hear young girls think that's "the thing" to do to be girlish!)

I wrote 4 hand written invitations to boys each year.  I only remember one or two of them.  And we already knew who the boys were, because no two girls sent invitations to the same boy.  I think some kind of sign up sheet was done, though I am not sure the boys were necessarily with their girlfriends...but there was some effort to have that happen.  What a zoo!

Miss Barbara Rogers cordially invites

 Mr. David Richmond for the honor

 of his presence

 at the _____ (whatever name of that Prom was)

 on the...such and such date.

  RSVP.

David was my first high school sweetheart, so we went to the winter prom together.  I don't think we received written acceptances...but maybe.  After all, our chosen dates had already been approved by The List.

My sister going to a prom in 1961

But I have memories of at least 2 dresses where I know I had my picture taken before the dance.  My first Prom I wore a pale yellow chiffon with draped shoulders. (It looked ok for a really thin girl.)
And sometime like my junior or senior year I dared to wear a strapless dress, which was held up by nice bone stays around my waist.  I liked the pretty white skirt with huge pink flowers printed on it and a big pink bow and ribbon around my waist which was 22" back then.

Dancing was definitely something I loved.  We'd learned all the ballroom steps in 7th and 8th grade.
Fox Trot, Waltz, Rumba, Cha Cha, Jitter-bug (Yes!) and Swing. Just before the Twist came out with Chubby Checker in the early 60s.  Incidentally, I did go to the Peppermint Lounge in New York on a short trip in 62.

Back to the proms, all night we got to change partners, never knowing whether the music would be fast or slow.  This was the beginning of rock and roll, and we watched American Bandstand remember?

American Bandstand in the 50s

Thanks for the memories, spurred by Sepia Saturday this week!



The themes for Sepia Saturday 280 - post your posts on or around Saturday 23 May 2015 - include boys, girls and dances. The caption on the old vintage postcard reads "In Leap Year - The Ladies after a little wine and tobacco join the gentlemen in the drawing room". So another potential theme you could have is that of "reverses" - occasions when the usual arrangements are reversed. Whatever theme you go with - or ignore, the choice is yours - just post your posts and then add a link to the Linky List below. Here is what is just around the corning: