{"id":488405,"date":"2022-08-26T18:00:41","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T15:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-graceful-masculinity-of-patrick-swayze-in-dirty-dancing\/"},"modified":"2022-08-26T18:00:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T15:00:41","slug":"the-graceful-masculinity-of-patrick-swayze-in-dirty-dancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-graceful-masculinity-of-patrick-swayze-in-dirty-dancing\/","title":{"rendered":"#The Graceful Masculinity of Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af825a983a0d\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af825a983a0d\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-graceful-masculinity-of-patrick-swayze-in-dirty-dancing\/#%E2%80%9CThe_Graceful_Masculinity_of_Patrick_Swayze_in_Dirty_Dancing%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;The Graceful Masculinity of Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CThe_Graceful_Masculinity_of_Patrick_Swayze_in_Dirty_Dancing%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;The Graceful Masculinity of Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<pre><code>     &lt;span class=\"mx-1\"&gt;As Johnny Castle, Swayze was able to demonstrate his natural strengths as a dancer and an actor interested in deconstructing masculine archetypes.&lt;\/span&gt;\n&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;div id=\"\"&gt;\n\n\n\n                &lt;figure class=\"sf-entry-featured-<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> \"&gt;\n            &lt;img width=\"800\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing.jpg\" class=\"articlethumb wp-post-image\" alt=\"Patrick Swayze Dirty Dancing\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing-768x480.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/&gt;                                    &lt;p&gt;\n                    &lt;span class=\"sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline\"&gt;Vestron Pictures&lt;\/span&gt;\n\n                        &lt;\/figure&gt;\n\n    &lt;!-- START BYLINE --&gt;\n    &lt;div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium dark-gray\"&gt;\n        By\u00a0Jacob Trussell\u00a0\u00b7 Published on August 26th, 2022 \n        &lt;\/div&gt;\n    &lt;!-- END BYLINE --&gt;\n\n    &amp;#13;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<p><em>Acting is an art form, and behind every iconic character is an artist expressing themselves. Welcome to\u00a0The Great Performances, a recurring column exploring the art behind some of cinema\u2019s best roles. In this entry, we examine Patrick Swayze\u2019s performance in Dirty Dancing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>As a kid of the 1990s, my relationship with the career of <strong>Patrick Swayze<\/strong> began in an unusual place. It was an episode of the TV show <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mst3k.fandom.com\/wiki\/MST3K_321_-_Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians\"><em>Mystery Science Theater 3000<\/em> featuring the film <em>Santa Claus Conquers the Martians<\/em><\/a>. Aboard the Satellite of Love, Crow T. Robot and the gang perform a new holiday standard, \u201c(Let\u2019s Have) A Patrick Swayze Christmas\u201d. With lyrics like \u201cIt\u2019s my way or the highway \/ this Christmas at my bar \/ I\u2019ll have to smash your kneecaps if \/ you bastards touch my car\u201d, the song is a list of everything you expect the protagonist of <em>Road House<\/em> would do. As the song implies, Swayze was a man\u2019s man. King of a certain brand of machismo that women wanted and men wanted to be.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>However, the action-oriented persona of Patrick Swayze isn\u2019t what makes him such a unique actor. Throughout his career, he imbued each tough guy character he played with a complex range of emotions. He was actively surfacing the hypersensitivities hiding behind traditional displays of masculinity.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Just look at one of his first meaty roles in Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s <em>The Outsiders<\/em>. He\u2019s the leader of a gang, but Swayze ditches any greaser mentality. Instead, he plays the mindset of a brother trying desperately to keep his family together after their parent\u2019s death. Something similar h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ens in <em>Red Dawn<\/em>. He\u2019s a nationalistic character with brass balls, but he doesn\u2019t heavily lean into stereotypes of John Wayne-style machismo. After a shocking betrayal, Swayze\u2019s character Jed orders the execution of one of his fellow survivors. Rather than play the scene with cold, dead eyes, Swayze emphasizes Jed\u2019s anxiety and anguish over his decision.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>His approach to masculine characters is perfectly realized in a movie that was a big departure from his past performances: <strong><em>Dirty Dancing<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>In the film, Swayze plays Johnny Castle, a dance instructor at a summer resort in the Catskills in 1963. He\u2019s confident and headstrong but unsure of who he really is beyond his womanizing swagger. His life changes after meeting Baby (Jennifer Grey), a resort guest. Their relationship blossoms after Baby has to fill in for Johnny\u2019s dance partner, Penny (Cynthia Rhodes), who needs an abortion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The abortion subplot is one way writer <strong>Eleanor Bergstein<\/strong> layered nuanced, progressive themes into this blithe dance movie. <em>Dirty Dancing<\/em> is set in a time when the United States was on the cusp of societal change. Bergstein uses this evolutionary moment to subtly reinforce progressive themes, like the fact that women deserve access to safe healthcare when making decisions over their own bodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s another progressive theme Bergstein includes that is central to Swayze\u2019s performance. It\u2019s one that deconstructs stereotypes that society traditionally places on men. Johnny has an external tough guy intensity thanks to Swayze\u2019s imposing presence. But Swayze layers Johnny with positive representations of masculinity, subverting the era\u2019s rigid interpretations of manhood.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Take, for instance, when Johnny meets Baby for the first time. Though Swayze is initially brusque in wondering what a guest is doing among the staff, he doesn\u2019t play Johnny as clinging to a masculine desire for control. He immediately switches gears and greets Baby\u2019s innocence with kindness. After ushering her onto the dance floor, he shows her a few steps, so she feels included and accepted.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Later in the film, rather than castigating Baby for going to her father for help with the abortion, Johnny admits his admiration for her courage and even urges her never to lose that part of herself. It\u2019s an unexpected degree of warmth that Swayze plays with simple sincerity. His character\u2019s frustration with Baby may grow as their big dance draws near, but Swayze never loses the grace Johnny shows her in their first moment together. It\u2019s an authentic earnestness that may appear incongruous with his surface-level bad boy demeanor but is integral to why the audience falls so hard for Swayze\u2019s Johnny. He\u2019s just <em>not<\/em> like the other guys.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the <em>other<\/em> reason he\u2019s not like the other guys is that Swayze is an accomplished dancer. Traditionally men haven\u2019t always been encouraged to be lyrically expressive with their bodies. However, throughout the mid-20th century, superstars like Gene Kelly, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Gregory Hines helped change the perception of the sportsmanlike athleticism that male dancers possess. Swayze carries that torch in <em>Dirty Dancing<\/em>, showing that, yes, action heroes <em>can<\/em> be balletic too.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s so impressive about Swayze, beyond his ability to emphasize the magnetism of Kenny Ortega\u2019s (<em><a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a>ies<\/em>) choreography, is that he does it with such incredible form. You can see it in his opening dance with Penny. Even though these are partner dances, the training Swayze received at the Joffrey Ballet is right there on screen. You can really see it in his arm movements (or Port de Bras if you\u2019re from the ballet world.) As his legs shuffle along under him, his upper body retains a graceful, effortless poise as he\u2019s swept up in the music and the movement. Instantly, Swayze proves\u2013both to us and the crowd at the dance\u2013the virile elegance that every male dancer embodies.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Between <em>Red Dawn, Road House,<\/em> and <em>Point Break<\/em>, Patrick Swayze solidified himself as a real man\u2019s-man of the 1980s and early 1990s Hollywood. He was so effective at massacring Russians and ripping out esophagi that it can be easy to forget the graceful masculinity that he sewed into so many characters he played. He never fell into the trap of creating one-dimensional representations of what it means to be a man. This is why Johnny Castle in <em>Dirty Dancing<\/em> is perhaps the greatest showcase of his talents. It combined his strengths as a gifted dancer and as a powerful actor who was constantly needling into the emotional complexities of his masculine characters in ways that are still surprising today.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<pre><code>    &lt;p&gt;Related Topics: The Great Performances\n    &lt;!-- AUTHOR BOX --&gt;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<div class=\"gray-bg p-4 border small mb-5\">\n<div class=\"row align-items-center text-md-center\">\n<div class=\"col-md-2\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jacob-Headshot-2022.png\" class=\"circle img-fluid\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\"\/>\n        <\/div>\n<div class=\"col-md\">\n            Jacob Trussell is a writer based in New York City. His editorial work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Rue Morgue Magazine, Film School Rejects, and One Perfect Shot. He&#8217;s also the author of &#8216;The Binge Watcher&#8217;s Guide to The Twilight Zone&#8217; (Riverdale Avenue Books). Available to host your next spooky public access show. Find him on Twitter here: <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JE_TRUSSELL\">@JE_TRUSSELL<\/a> (He\/Him)        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<pre><code>    &lt;!-- START RECOMMENDED READING 1 --&gt;\n                                &lt;section class=\"recommended py-5\"&gt;\n            &lt;h3&gt;Recommended Reading&lt;\/h3&gt;\n\n\n        &lt;\/section&gt;\n            &lt;!-- END RECOMMENDED READING --&gt;\n\n\n\n\n&lt;\/div&gt;&lt;script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"&gt;&lt;\/script&gt;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing-masculinity\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing-masculinity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The Graceful Masculinity of Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing&#8221; &lt;span class=&#8221;mx-1&#8243;&gt;As Johnny Castle, Swayze was able to demonstrate his natural strengths as a dancer and an actor interested in deconstructing masculine archetypes.&lt;\/span&gt; &lt;\/p&gt;&lt;div id=&#8221;&#8221;&gt; &lt;figure class=&#8221;sf-entry-featured-media &#8220;&gt; &lt;img width=&#8221;800&#8243; height=&#8221;500&#8243; src=&#8221;https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing.jpg&#8221; class=&#8221;articlethumb wp-post-image&#8221; alt=&#8221;Patrick Swayze Dirty Dancing&#8221; srcset=&#8221;https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing-768&#215;480.jpg 768w&#8221; sizes=&#8221;(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px&#8221;\/&gt;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":488406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/patrick-swayze-dirty-dancing.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}