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My Dirty Dancing days

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Emma Forbes with leading man Josef Brown as Johnny, at Pineapple Dance Studios

Josef Brown and Georgina Rich in the stage version of Dirty Dancing

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All my life I've been addicted to musicals. I have already seen Wicked twice in London and twice in America. I love Chicago and have seen it with almost every cast - and there have been many.

I have lived every second of Dirty Dancing, and watched the film 37 times. Always breathlessly, longingly admiring the dancing, weeping at the romance and adoring that famous line: "No one puts Baby in the corner."

It has everything I long for in a film: a simple recipe of boy meets girl, they fall in love despite all the odds, endure a torturous personal journey but ultimately love conquers all and they end up giddy in their passion. The dancing seals the romance. In my view, the sexiest thing a man can be is a great dancer.

So to be asked to dance with the lead of the new West End musical version of Dirty Dancing is my dream come true. The moment the call came through, I rewatched the film for the 38th time, then listened to the soundtrack every day on the school run. I've even been caught dancing around the house dressed as Baby. In truth, I've been preparing for this moment for years.

I may yet have to dance at midnight in St Mark's Square in Venice and Jim never fixed it for me to partner Baryshnikov - despite my writing seven letters. But I have done three months' training in order to audition for the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago, only to be partnered with Bonnie Langford, who was in the splits in the lobby before we even got to the stage. We had to learn an unbelievably complicated tap routine which Bonnie was brilliant at. I was struggling just to stay alive. Needless to say, Bonnie walked away with the part.

To prepare for Strictly Come Dancing auditions I took ballroom dancing lessons at the Polish Institute in South Kensington. I had drinks with the producers to convince them that I wasn't "too boring". I waited for the call, dying for my moment with Anton du Beke in front of millions, and steeled myself to win if I was picked - you can't be the one who gets voted out in the first week.

So imagine my disappointment to be turned down not once, but three times. But none of this deterred me. You see, I've always wanted to star in a musical.

As the daughter of the actress Nanette Newman and film producer Bryan Forbes, performance is in my blood. When I gave up my teenage ambitions of becoming a ballet dancer, realising that I was never going to be Darcey Bussell, I began to dream of playing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, or Sandy in Grease. But then I had a complete change of direction and telly became my passion. The yearning to be in a musical never went.

I don't just go and see them, I live them. And of course, I don't want to be in the chorus - oh no, I want to be Baby, I want to be the one who gets the guy, who gets to do the big number and ends it all on a high.

For me, the climax of Dirty Dancing - the dance routine to (I've Had) The Time of My Life - is as good as it gets. Finally, my day came. By 9am I was dressed in one of those leotards with a little skirt attached, with black tights and character shoes.

Smelling of Deep Heat (in case of injury), I turned up early at the Pineapple Dance Studios to meet Josef Brown, an effortlessly handsome man with one of those sinewy dancer's bodies. He looked more than a bit like a young Patrick Swayze as he broke into a large grin. Clearly word had got out that he was meeting a groupie!

The music went on - Time of My Life on repeat - and suddenly I was transported into the Sixties world of the movie as Josef started moving his great big hunk of a body. He was incredibly sexy when he started to dance. To make things worse he was wearing ripped jeans, a T-shirt and holey socks which somehow were very cool on him. I felt very prissy in my dancer's outfit.

He was the perfect teacher. And of course I believed him when he looked into my eyes and told me I was "doing good". I became the ideal pupil. As we moved around the dancefloor I became completely absorbed - I didn't even notice the other people in the room.

At one point he started talking in an American accent, and straight away he became Johnny. I was Baby, and he was clearly going to capture my heart. I tried hard to stay calm when he suggested I stand with my legs apart so we could get close enough to do the mambo.

The only glitch came when he asked me to stop leading him, and to avoid treading on his feet, both of which I then did. But he was enchanting, and before I knew it I was mambo-ing, swirling, dipping and swaying with Josef staring into my eyes.

And the smell was incredible. There's nothing quite like the scent of a sweaty dance studio. It brought it all back - the training in my youth in a studio just round the corner from where we were whirling round the room. It was a very sexy smell - it smelled like the film.

By the end of our lesson I'd mastered the routine to the soundtrack. He told me I was a quick learner - I think those Strictly Ballroom lessons paid off. It had been a very intimate hour. We'd only just met but we'd done an intensely sexy mambo, our hips close and eyes locked.

Then just as suddenly as it began the magic was gone. Our time was up and Josef had to rush off.

I had, quite literally, just had the time of my life. For that brief moment it was total perfection and for me there's no going back. For this Baby, it is well and truly time to get out of the corner.

 

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