The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘DIRTY DANCING’ MARK 30 YEARS WITH VISIT TO FILM LOCATIONS
ever drive in Pembroke, Virginia, about 60 miles west of Roanoke. Bergstein wanted a setting that conveyed the grandeur that Catskill resorts were known for in the middle of the last century, and the Mountain Lake Lodge certainly did that. Moviemaking, though, is a disruptive process, so she needed a second location where the crew could have more time and latitude. That was provided by a dilapidated former boys camp in Lake Lure, North Carolina, where there was no active resort business to get in the way of filming.
The world-famous lake lift
And thus the great lake war. Even if you’ve never seen “Dirty Dancing,” you have seen the gorgeous, sexy image of Swayze hoisting Grey over his head as they stand in a lake, practicing the pièce-de-résistance dance move for a show Baby and Johnny are to perform at the story’s climax.
Both shooting locations had a lake. People in both claim their lake was the one used for this signature scene. In both, you can take tours where you’ll be shown the exact spot where the filming supposedly took place.
So which state’s version of events is accurate? Bergstein said she was quite sure the lake lift was shot at the Virginia location. But 30-yearold memories can be squishy, so she had me seek confirmation from David Chapman, the production designer for the film. He came up with what he said was definitive proof that Bergstein’s recollection was correct: a sketch from his collection of storyboards for the movie, labeled “Baby Does Lift in Water.”
A doodle on the left side of that drawing indicates the pier at the Virginia lake, and a tiny symbol shows the placement of the camera, aimed at the spot where the actors stood on wooden platforms that had been sunk into the water and were held down with concrete blocks.
Sorry, North Carolina. The defining scene was shot at Mountain Lake in Virginia. But you get a consolation prize: Anyone who wants to re-create that scene on hallowed ground associated with the movie, as many fans do, is going to have to go to Lake Lure. Because Mountain Lake has gone missing.
The gazebo overlooking nothing
In the movie, when you see “Kellerman’s,” you see a lovely lake in front of the lodge, vacationers enjoying the water. Now, though, the lodge overlooks a dry lake bed. Mountain Lake is a rare geological specimen that, a video on the lodge’s website explains, drains itself once in a long while as a sort of purifying exercise, eventually refilling naturally. It went dry in 2008. Now experts are trying to nudge it gently back to life, but when I was there in early April it was about as empty as a lake can be.
That is certainly not the sight “Dirty Dancing” fans expect to see, but it’s eerily beautiful. There’s a gazebo on the grounds that locals say was built for the movie by engineering students from Virginia Tech. Several scenes were shot there, overlooking the water. Today, beside the gazebo is a stone memorial to Swayze, who died in 2009 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57. The boathouse and pier leading to the nowdry ground where the lake lift was filmed is off to the right. To sit in the gazebo and stare out at the lake bed when it’s shrouded in early morning fog is profound somehow, and humbling. A quiet reminder that time passes and carries everything along with it.
The restaurant
Even without its lake, Mountain Lake Lodge makes a lovely destination. You don’t have to ask where the movie scenes were shot; at check-in you’ll get a map. Michael Richardson, the bartender, is a walking encyclopedia of the movie. When he shows you the shooting locations, he doesn’t just describe the scene shot there, he recites all the dialogue.
The lodge has Dirty Dancing Weekends every summer, special packages that provide guests with a tour, group dance lessons (with optional private lessons), a “Dirty Dancing” scavenger hunt and more. Three are scheduled this year — one each in June, July and August — but fans of the movie come all the time.
The staircase
After two relaxing nights at the lakeless Virginia location, head down Interstate 77 and across North Carolina on Interstate 40 to Lake Lure, where there’s more to do but, for the “Dirty Dancing” fan, somewhat less to see. The lake was created in the 1920s by damming the Broad River, and today it is an active tourist destination that embraces “Dirty Dancing” every bit as much as the Mountain Lake Lodge does.
But the boys camp where most of the filming took place is long gone; it was on the way out even when the film crew was there.
Private homes now occupy the filming site, and in the backyard of one are the remnants of a stone staircase that is said to have been used in two of the movie’s best known scenes: one in which Baby helps another character carry watermelons to a dance party, another in which, alone, she gets in touch with her inner dancer on a white bridge at the staircase’s base.
This part of the lake is known as Firefly Cove, and unless you’re a homeowner there it’s now accessible only by a boat tour. On such a tour you might hear that the lake-lift scene was shot in the cove. It wasn’t, but certainly this is the lake to go to if you want to try your own lake lift. This year, come on the weekend of Aug. 18 and you can do it competitively.
That’s when Lake Lure’s annual Dirty Dancing Festival will be, and it includes a lake-lift competition: Whichever couple holds that iconic pose the longest wins. There will also be watermelonrelated events, dance competitions and a screening of the movie. Michelle Yelton, a founder of the festival, said the 2016 edition drew more than 2,000 people. Because this is the film’s 30th anniversary (which Lionsgate marked with a rerelease of the DVD in a commemorative edition), the 2017 festival will no doubt be all the bigger.