On the Trail of 'Dirty Dancing' in Virginia

The best Johnny is a woman. Brett Beer parodies Patrick Swayze's dance instructor in 'Dirty Dancing' so well at the costume contest that she receives the loudest applause from the audience. The 39-year-old impressed especially with a full-body shiver reminiscent of Elvis in her rebellious black Johnny outfit.

'We had an unbelievable amount of fun,' Beer recounts the next morning at breakfast. Her three friends Amber Musenbrock, Jamie Dumstorff, and Julie Brown sit beside her. The four women have known each other since high school. All grew up in and around Germantown, Illinois, but now live in different places.

Once a year, they meet for their Girls Weekend, as they call it. The atmosphere, as you can imagine, was quite lively on the first evening of their reunion with pizza and bottled beer. They're caught up in a whirlwind of schooltime memories here at the filming location of 'Dirty Dancing'.

Six times a year, Heidi Stone, the manager of Mountain Lake Lodge, invites guests to a Dirty Dancing Weekend. Then her resort in the southern Appalachians of Virginia transforms into Kellerman's Mountain House, as the resort was called in the film.

Ten years ago, when Stone started here, the business was on the brink of closure. 'Everything was in decline,' she recalls. No one invested ideas and money in the buildings and grounds anymore, partly because the lake where Baby and Johnny practiced The Lift, the famous move from the final scene, had dried up. Eventually, the owners recognized the treasure they had amidst lush, partly untouched nature. Here, the Appalachians are called the Blue Ridge Mountains. They indeed have a pale blue hue.

The most popular selfie background is Baby's Cabin, the cabin where Frances 'Baby' Houseman, played by Jennifer Grey, stayed with her family in the film. Next spring, Grey will return to the site of her biggest cinematic hit to film the sequel to the cult movie. The manager couldn't wish for better advertising. It's already known that the dance film is set in the 1990s. Grey, now 62, wants to, as she said in an interview, ease people's fears about aging by showing that 'certain things aren't reserved only for the young.'

Brie Johanson has watched 'Dirty Dancing' 500 times. The 45-year-old from Aldie, Virginia, traveled with her husband Richard, who says the movie reminds him of a 'time of transition', the end of school days and youthful carefreeness, the search for one's own voice and path, just as the 17-year-old Baby experiences in the film. Perhaps viewers in part two will learn if she actually joined the Peace Corps as she planned and what became of her ideals 35 years later.

'Dirty Dancing' is set in the summer of 1963, in the calm between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy assassination. Soon, the US would enter the Vietnam War. Baby's story is partly autobiographical. Screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein also spent the summers of her childhood and youth with her parents at a vacation settlement in the Catskill Mountains north of New York. There, in the so-called Borscht Belt, hundreds of resorts existed where mainly Jewish Americans vacationed. People danced the mambo there, not the stiff foxtrot.

Mountain Lake Lodge serves a cocktail called Mambo Magic, but learning to dance like Baby and Johnny would take weeks. We only have time today. Dance instructors Debbi Richey and Dennis Williams give it their all. They show us a seemingly simple group dance in mambo rhythm. The only two instructions are: 'Quick quick slow' and 'Don't forget to smile.' Doing both at the same time - quite complicated. Ultimately, there's a lot of laughter.

On the surface, it's the story of a first love. Beneath that, it's about overcoming social divides, as the well-bred doctor's daughter Baby, despite all opposition, gets involved with bad boy Johnny. That her father treats Johnny's dance partner Penny, who is writhing in pain after an illegal abortion, even propels the plot into the present. Julie-Anne finds it 'shocking' that the topic of abortion is as controversial in the US today as it was back then.

The shop offers T-shirts with the two most famous 'Dirty Dancing' quotes. 'Nobody puts Baby in a corner', translated very freely into German as 'Mein Baby gehört zu mir'. Another popular purchase is the 'I carried a watermelon' shirt. The scene where Baby climbs stairs with a watermelon in hand before first dancing with Johnny was not filmed at Mountain Lake, but at Lake Lure in North Carolina, the second location of the film.

Watermelons make for a popular photo op, too, like with Linda and Amanda Dubbs, a mother and daughter from Hanover, Pennsylvania. Generations have agreed on this film, which is part of why it remains a cult classic. They are standing in front of the main house, built from sandstone in 1936. The facade has not been altered since. The restaurant interior is original 'Dirty Dancing'. You can dine at the same table as the Housemans. A look into the kitchen, where Penny, unintendedly pregnant, hid in despair, is not allowed, but chef Michael Porterfield is happy to answer questions.

The 65-year-old worked here during filming. 'Patrick Swayze wasn't really a star back then,' he remembers. 'He drank beer with us, and once I took him on my motorcycle to Blacksburg.' Because Swayze rode pillion once, some fans over the years wanted to buy the bike from Porterfield.

What's the most played song on our retro trip? Correct. '(I've Had) the Time of My Life'. It's unsurprisingly also the last song the DJ plays at the party on Saturday night. And afterwards, there's another bottle of beer in front of Baby's Cabin.

Travel: There are daily flights from various German airports to Washington Dulles International Airport. From there, continue to Roanoke in Virginia. It's recommended to rent a car from the airport to Mountain Lake Lodge. Drive time: about 70 minutes.

Entry: Germans must apply online for an ESTA authorization at least 72 hours before travel at esta.cbp.dhs.gov. Cost: 21 USD.

Mountain Lake Lodge: The resort is open year-round. Baby's Cabin and room 232 in the main house, where Patrick Swayze stayed during filming, can be booked at no additional cost. Dirty Dancing Weekends take place between April and October. Price per person for two nights in a double room: from $799 USD, approximately €825. This includes full-board (excluding alcoholic beverages), film screening, dance course, quiz, and lawn games. Next dates: April 28-30, 2023, June 23-25, 2023.

This trip was supported by the Capital Region USA. The editorial team alone decides on the selection and focus of the content.