When Cynthia Rhodes wasn’t dancing with John Travolta in Staying Alive, she was with Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing.
Rhodes, who will turn 67 in November 2023, is known for her movie appearances in important dance
dramas from the 1980s. At the height of her career, she graciously retired from the spotlight.
Cynthia Rhodes, a singer and dancer who was born in Nashville, Tennessee, had her acting debut in the
1980 musical fantasy movie Xanadu, which also starred the late Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly.
Her portrayal as the dancer Tina Tech in the 1983 film Flashdance paved the way for an even bigger role
as John Travolta’s Broadway dance partner in Sylvester Stallone’s Staying Alive, the follow-up to Saturday Night Fever.
Her most enduring performance was as Penny Johnson, a dancing instructor at a resort hotel, in Dirty Dancing, which was released in 1987.
She performs exquisite and showy Mambo-style routines in her role, showcasing her rhythmic talent
alongside the late Patrick Swayze, with whom she also shares heartbreaking and tragic passages.
With her ‘edge,’ as Penny was described by Rhodes, Penny fascinated and horrified the audience as the person who had a failed illegal abortion.
The movie gave the three main characters—Swayze as Johnny, Jennifer Grey as Baby, and Rhodes—a socially relevant subplot about reproductive rights that set them up for stardom.
She comes from South Philly and has experienced hardship… She has a sweetness about her, but it’s hidden because she’s been through a
lot and has sort of built a wall around herself. And, in the end, I think she recognizes that life does go on, said Rhodes.
The actor’s life did continue, but not in the way that his supporters had hoped.
In order to prepare for the part of Penny, Rhodes put in ten hours a day of training, which made dancing ‘really hard.’
‘For this reason, I keep declaring that I’ll never dance again. I’m done dancing.Rhodes complained,
‘My back hurts all the time, and my bones hurt. ‘I seem to get another film every time I declare, ‘That’s it, I don’t want to dance anymore.
I won’t decline a job offer! Being in dance-oriented movies makes me feel extremely lucky. However,
please allow me the opportunity to perform some dramatic work without dancing.Give me a simple acting role, please.
The talented blonde, who was 31 years old and had her pick of parts and suitors, made an appearance in Richard Marx’s
‘Don’t Mean Nothing’ music video. Marx is also the singer of ‘Right Here Waiting,’ the 1989 song famously composed for Rhodes.
The Grammy Award-winning singer and Rhodes got married in 1989. In 1990, she gave birth to her first child, Brandon, then in 1992, Lucas, and 1994, Jesse.
Marx claims that Rhodes, who had previously prepared for the Olympics, took early retirement in 1990
to care for their children and to avoid the ‘intense physical pain’ that her movements entailed.
‘I figured, ‘This won’t last, she’ll want to go back to work and do movies. But she discovered a joy in motherhood that absolutely outweighed any feelings she experienced while filming.
Marx continued, ‘Even if you’re her biggest fan, as good as you think she was as a dancer, singer, or actress, man, you should see her as a mom.’ Marx is currently 59 years old.
It turns out that Rhodes, who began dancing at the age of three, was happiest when she was a mother and gave her body the time to relax and recover.
‘The point was, I never used to get hurt. I was a gymnast, in fact. And now it’s kind of annoying…I used to never stretch.
I now need to warm up before I dance. I enjoy dancing, but I wouldn’t regret it if I stopped doing it altogether, Rhodes remarked.
Rhodes hasn’t turned around either. Curse of the Crystal Eye, a 1991 movie, was the final time she made an appearance on screen.
The former Hollywood starlet wed Daisy Fuentes, the first Latina host of MTV, the next year after divorcing Marx in 2014.
Her three kids are each continuing in the footsteps of their well-known parents.
Lucas is a singer and actor who has appeared in the TV shows The Chicago Code, The Mob Doctor, Chicago P.D.,
and Parenthood. Brandon is also a music producer and vocalist. The youngest, Jesse, is writing music and playing in a metal band.
Published on Tuesday, December 8, 2020 by Mirko Ranù.
Even though we miss seeing Cynthia Rhodes, we can understand why she chose to leave Hollywood because dancing takes a great level of athleticism.