Nobody puts Baby in a corner...

I can't believe I'm about to write another piece on the death of a celebrity... So many "stars" have fallen this year and I'm not talking Lohan here. Every few weeks it's someone else, while some deaths have been expected - others have not. My jaw has dropped a few times this year when sitting down with my morning coffee scrolling through the latest dish on Perez. When your time is up, your time is up so they say...

The story I'm about to share is about a man who did die about a week ago after a short battle with a terminal illness. I almost feel late talking about it now but nonetheless he meant a great deal to me when I was younger and his passing has brought back some fond memories.

When I was a child I wanted to grow up to be a professional dancer, I think it started with seeing episodes of "Solid Gold" the really early 80's. I must have only been 5 or 6 at most at the time but I idolized those "Solid Gold" dancers, it was from there that my obsession with music began. It wasn't long before my Mom introduced me to "Grease" - I remember how disappointed I was to learn that John and Olivia weren't really together in real life.

My next dance inspiration came when my Mom took me to see "A Chorus Line - The Movie" in the theatre in 1985. People actually could earn a living dancing? No way! I remember listening to the soundtrack in my room and dancing my ass off trying to be as good as them. "Oh God I need this job..."

My parents didn't seem to mind this odd behavior - I wasn't exactly interested in doing what the other kids were doing. I was quite content with my music in my room. I did do one or two years in Ukrainian dance classes - it made my father proud. Aside from that I wasn't really interested in being a dance student so to speak - to me it was more about expressing myself and having a good time. Cue Madonna - I'm just kidding.

Actually she wasn't far off. Next stop Summer 1987 - Another "dance" movie was coming out and my Mom thought I would be interested in seeing it. I remember we didn't know much about it. We had wanted to see "La Bamba" (the Ritchie Valens bio-pic) and this theatre in downtown Edmonton was showing it with a sneak preview of this other film "Dirty Dancing". Little did I know just how much impact this little dance movie was going to have on the next few years of my life. To say that I loved the film would be an understatement. I was only 9 when I saw it - at that time in your childhood you are looking to be molded and boy did I find something mold me. The story moved me in so many ways - I totally was Baby in the corner looking for my Johnny to rescue me. The obsession continued of course with the those fantastic soundtracks. Listening to the songs, dancing to the beats... It's all a bit silly looking back but every time we rented a VCR I always tried to get Mom to rent "Dirty Dancing" so I could watch it over and over again. Patrick Swayze was the very first pin-up I ever put up on my wall. I think it was from Tiger Beat or some other teen magazine like that - needless to say it's one of the first moments in my life when I knew exactly who I was. My ambition to be a dancer had a name and his name was Patrick Swayze.

I'm not sure at what point I jumped off the "I wanna be a dancer" train... somewhere in my early teens I think. I did win my elementary school's talent show in grade 6 dancing my ass off to Milli Vanilli. Maybe the success I felt with that was enough for me so I walked away from the dream. Actually I think the truth is I got it into my head that I was going to be a singer but that's a story I will have to save for another time.

In closing I just wanted to recognize Patrick for inspiring a little boy in northern Alberta to believe in himself just a little bit more. RIP.