Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Patrick Swayze Proved that "White Men Can Dance"

Last night, on Msnbc's Countdown we heard the news of Patrick Swayze's death. Swayze's countdown in his battle with cancer was waged valiantly, but as is the case with millions fighting cancer, the disease won out and America lost a true hero.
Why? For decades urban legend had perpetuated the white men can't dance theory. And then along came Patrick Swayze who transformed dancing by incorporating the romantic notion that (sorry Snoopy, I'm paraphrasing) "To dance is to love and to love is to dance."
In Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze not only delivered on his dance moves but also demonstrated the power of the dance. Millions of women, young and old, married and unmarried did not merely enjoy the movie but were transfixed by his performance. How does an upper scale young woman from New York fall for the hard livin', cynical dance instructor at the Catskills? Yes, Johnny Castle was sexy, yes he could dance, but it was the relationship Baby and Johnny embraced through dancing that mesmerized us all and made us believe that raw sexual attraction and true love could be found in one package. It took the love of dancing that Swayze inherited from his Mother who owned a dance studio and the sizzling performance to turn this "little movie" as Jennifer Grey described "Dirty Dancing" into a world wide phenomena.
Swayze would later demonstrate in "Ghost" that when vulnerability and masculinity co-exist the end result is irresistible. Gentle power has long been missing in our culture. The likes of Chris Brown and Kanye West have achieved stardom from a thuggish appeal that in real life,sadly, translates into bully behavior and worse, abuse.
Swayze's lesson for all of us is to live in the moment of life's dance, to lead and follow, to move together, in sync, and to truly listen to the rhythms that define our journey and allow us to fall in love all over again. Many people have the ability to touch our lives, but this hero lives on in our hearts and minds and begs us to dance again. The world will miss Patrick Swayze.

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