Dirty Dancing Analysis: Space-Time Portals in the Movie "Dirty Dancing"

My previous article Dirty Dancing and Diegesis included an idea about portals that I am presenting here separately and in my own words. Peter Ayers, the author of the original article, pointed out two of the movie's moments that depicted portals by means of a smaller frame within the screen's larger frame.

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The first such moment is when Baby Houseman enters the bunkhouse where the "dirty dancing" party is taking place.

Baby passing through the bunkhouse's space-time portal

The movie audience sees two frames.

* The larger, outer frame is the entire screen.

* The smaller, inner frame is the doors' opening.

The smaller-inner frame is a portal through which Baby travels suddenly through space-time to another world that is vastly different from her normal world.

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The second such moment is when Johnny Castle leaps off the talent show's stage toward the ballroom's audience and also toward the movie theater's audience.

Johnny passing through the ballroom's space-time portal

Again the movie audience sees two frames.

* The larger, outer frame is the entire screen.

* The smaller, inner frame is the stage's opening.

The smaller-inner frame outlines a portal through which Johnny leaps suddenly through space-time from 1963 into 1987 (or later), when the movie audience is watching the story.

Because Johnny and Baby are performing their final dance as they are passing through ballroom's space-time portal, their 1963 dance can be accompanied logically by a 1987 song.

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I myself will add a third such moment -- when Baby is looking out her family car's window as she narrates from the future about being present in the year 1963.

Baby narrating through her car's space-time portal.

Yet again, the movie audience sees two frames:

* The larger, outer frame is the entire screen.

* The smaller, inner frame is the car's open window.

The smaller-inner frame outlines the portal through which the Baby narrates from the future, from 1987, backwards through space-time into this story that is taking place in 1963

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In the Bible, at Genesis 28:10-19, there is a description of Jacob's Ladder, the means by which angels and human beings are able to travel between mortal Earth and eternal Heaven through a time-space portal. The following paintings depict Jacob's Ladder. (Click on an image to enlarge it.)

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Dante's epic poem Divine Comedy describes another portal by which angels and human beings are able to travel between mortal Earth and the eternal Afterlife through a space-time portal. The following paintings depict this Afterlife portal.