I Had the Tme of My Life!

After 20 years, I got to see my ALL TIME favourite movie Dirty Dancing on the big screen again! It's hard to believe that I'm actualy old enough to have seen something and remember it so vividly that happened 20 YEARS AGO - but I do. (My mom took me to see it at a theatre that was inside an airport area hotel!)

Seeing it in a packed theatre with fans equally as excited and in love with the movie as me was the greatest experience. They cheered at all the classic lines (i.e. "I carried a watermelon", "Johnny!") and of course the place errupted in cheers at "Nobody puts baby in the corner!". My cheeks hurt by the end of the night as I sat there grinning from ear to ear throughout the entire thing.

Nothing beats seeing it on the big screen. I wish I could see it like that all the time. I literally wanted to get up and dance! At first it was hard to watch the movie and not recite the lines I am familiar with along with the characters (didnt want to piss off the lady beside me)...but soon I was sucked into the world of Kellermans and it was like I was seeing it for the first time!

The actual movie was preceeded by a behind the scenes feature with interviews and memories of the creator, the lead coreographer, back up dancers and producer that lead into behind the scenes info on how the stage production came to be! And the scenes I saw from that look amazing! I never would have thought they could have done it - but it looks like they did bring Dirty Dancing to life and very well at that! I can HARDLY WAIT to see it!

But one of the coolest parts of the night was a Q&A session with the writer and creator of Dirty Dancing - Eleanor Bergstein. Can I just say that I love my fellow Dirty Dancing fans??? The asked all of the questions that have been burning in my mind for 20 years. Like 'What is the significance of the book the Fountainhead, that Robbie gives Baby, telling her "I've got notes in the margin,"' and 'What drew her to choose Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey?' (fyi - she choose Patrick Swayze from a picture because she said his hooded eyes were exactly the look she pictured for Johnny and Jennfer Grey was absolutely not the look she was going for but actually the first person they auditioned and after her she just couldn't picture anyone else in the role!). But best of all was the question of 'Were there scenes you loved but had to cut from the movie?' and the answer was, 'yes they were and you can see them now in the stage play plus a bunch of new scenes she wasn't smart enough to think of the first time around'. Like I said I CANNOT WAIT to see this production!

The packed crowd in the theatre ranged in age from barely a teenager to grey haired old ladies. People that weren't even alive when this movie came out LOVE IT and it made me proud to be able to say I saw it in it original format on the big screen 20 years ago. And my love for Dirty Dancing stands even stronger.

me.