I had to at least mention the passing of Patrick Swayze this week. We don’t often think of him as a “trained” professional dancer, but, in fact, that’s exactly what he was. His mother was a choreographer, and he claimed he began dancing in the womb.
I remember him most in Dirty Dancing, and you can find lots of clips from that movie and his other bigger hits on YouTube and elsewhere. Here are a couple you may not have seen that will show you Swayze the male dancer in a different light.
I, for one, am very sorry to see this very masculine dancer leave the earth plane. What a great role model he was in so many ways on and off the big screen for our boys.
In the movie One Last Dance (1993) with his wife, Lisa Niemi, who directed the film, and George De La Pena. (If you watch the movie, which I plan to do, I’m told that in the trailer Swayze explains why dancing is magical: “It’s like living in a beautiful storybook where you can fly if you want to; you can reach up and grab a star.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC-YSIsBGLs&hl=en&fs=1&]
Swayze and his wife at the World Music Awards 1994
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y0TWOttkVo&hl=en&fs=1&]
Of course...from the end of Dirty Dancing…the Swayze we know best.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y97bWP33d8I&hl=en&fs=1&]
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