MOVERS SHAKERS MAKERS

The Next Step - Dirty Dancing (1987)

Makeshift Company Season 7 Episode 2

Up next in our new mini-series, The Next Step, is DIRTY DANCING (1987)! With bonus film--FLASHDANCE (1983).

Long a stalwart of slumber parties, Dirty Dancing can actually be a tougher watch than you remember, with a plot that revolves around an illegal abortion. We all know the famous line at the end of the film, but do you know who Baby's father was in real life? Or how to do that lift properly? And why Patrick Swayze isn't even the best dancer in this movie? 

Perhaps the ultimate 80s film about a female sexual awakening, a rewatch reveals canny representations of class struggles. WARNING: you'll be singing that f*cking Hula Song for days to come.

Guests: Zoë Ashe-Browne, Diarmaid O'Meara

LINKS

Abortion law timeline 

Jezebel interview with Eleanor Bergstein


People on this episode