![]() The film appealed to my teenage self then, and I love it even more now – so I understand the enthusiasm that draws fans to the lodge’s six annual Dirty Dancing-themed weekends, which often sell out a year in advance. But this wasn’t the case with everyone – neighbours for whom I regularly babysat were cast as extras and can be spotted briefly on a lakeside beach (now a playground), just before the wig scene. I was 15 in 1986 and, although I grew up in Virginia, I didn’t know a Swayze movie was being filmed in this Blue Ridge Mountains location. After following the trail to a gravel road, you’ll climb steeply to Bald Knob, a rocky outlook that rewards with mountain and valley views. The bridge and staff quarters were filmed 375km away, in Lake Lure, North Carolina. You won’t come across any evidence of dance parties along this path, though. A short walk away is the path Baby takes towards the staff area, just before she encounters Johnny’s watermelon-carrying cousin Billy on a bridge and, soon afterwards, some seriously raunchy dancing in a staff cabin. Today, guests drive towards the back of the lodge to check in to the 350-guest lodge’s traditional rooms, cabins, cottages, and fully furnished homes, parking near an underpass that Swayze’s character, Johnny, drives through after smashing in his car window. Kara Murphy attempts one of Baby's moves on the bridge at Mountain Lake Lodge. Dirty Dancing is returning to Mountain Lake Lodge, the Southwest Virginia resort where Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey filmed the iconic romantic movie in 1986. See also: You won't believe tourists still want to go here See also: 20 movie locations you can actually visit Signs point out locations such as the gazebo where Penny gave salsa lessons the historic three-bedroom Virginia cottage where Grey’s character Baby Houseman stayed with her family and the grand 1936 sandstone lodge, which presides over the lake’s southern end and featured as the fictional Kellerman’s Resort. The lake – on the ridges of Salt Pond Mountain and cyclically empties and fills due to a natural phenomenon – isn’t the only site at this Pembroke, Virginia, lodge you’ll recall from the movie. To film Dirty Dancing, principal photography took place in Lake Lure in North Carolina and Mountain Lake, Virginia. Sometimes, says Adam, a few zealous fans move the blocks to a different location, where they believe the move was performed. Someone hiding under the chilly waters held Swayze’s legs during this scene to make the lift a little easier today, cinder blocks mark this spot. (Some scenes were filmed in Lake Lure, N.C.) Part of the Virginia resort was a picturesque lake but, according to an article on CNN.com, the lake dried up in. Adam, recreation manager at Mountain Lake Lodge, where much of the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing was filmed in September 1986, nods. It’s why fans visit Lake Lure, why the festival is expecting its largest crowd to date this year, and why the county has adopted the slogan: “Have the Time of Your Life” in Lake Lure and the Blue Ridge Foothills, inspired by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’s hit duet from the film’s sound track.“Patrick Swayze lifted Jennifer Grey there?” I ask, pointing towards a bare patch of earth in Mountain Lake’s vegetated lakebed, about 40m from a former boat dock. ![]() ![]() “People naturally gravitate to the concept ,” Yelton says. Although Yelton says that the boathouse stairs featured in a scene when Grey’s character carries a watermelon (and later, when she dances down them solo) are the only remaining icon from the movie, the overall spirit of the film still thrives. ![]() The rooms in which Swayze and Grey stayed are available to rent. The dancers practiced in the inn’s Roosevelt Hall and threw parties akin to those shown in the movie when they weren’t filming. The 1927 Lake Lure Inn & Spa, however, just a mile away from the other filming location in Lake Lure, North Carolina, housed the entire cast and crew. Because producers made a last-minute decision to film in Virginia, only a few actors could stay at Mountain Lake Lodge. ![]()
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