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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, she played Penny Johnson, a dance teacher at a resort hotel. This was her most famous part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her part, she shows off her rhythmic skills with graceful and flashy Mambo-style moves while dancing with the late Patrick Swayze in heartbreaking emotional dramatic scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rhodes said Penny had a \u201cedge,\u201d which at the same time charmed and shocked watchers as the character who had an illegal abortion go wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rhodes was at the center of a subplot about reproductive rights that was important to society. The movie set up the three main characters\u2014Swayze as Johnny, Jennifer Grey as Baby, and Rhodes\u2014for fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019s from South Philadelphia and has had a hard life\u2026\u201d She\u2019s sweet, but she\u2019s held back because she\u2019s been through a lot and has built up a wall. Rhodes went on, \u201cAnd I think she finally understands that life does go on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actor\u2019s life did go on, but not the way fans had hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rhodes said that dancing got \u201creally hard\u201d after she trained for 10 hours a day for the Penny part. I keep telling myself I\u2019ll never dance again because of this. I\u2019m done moving\u2026Rhodes said, \u201cMy back hurts all the time and my bones hurt.\u201d \u201cEvery time I say, \u2018That\u2019s it, I don\u2019t want to dance anymore,\u2019 I get another film.\u201d I\u2019m not going to refuse work! I feel very lucky to be in movies with dancing. But I\u2019d like to do some serious work that doesn\u2019t involve dancing\u2026Just cast me in a straight role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The talented blonde, who was 31 years old at the time, had her pick of parts and men. The same year that Dirty Dancing came out, she was in the music video for Richard Marx\u2019s song \u201cDon\u2019t Mean Nothing.\u201d Marx was also the singer of the famous Rhodes song \u201cRight Here Waiting\u201d from 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1989, Rhodes married the Grammy Award-winning musician. In 1990, she had her first child, Brandon. In 1992, she had Lucas, and in 1994, she had Jesse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marx says Rhodes, who used to train for the Olympics, quit in 1990 to take care of their children and because her moves caused her \u201cintense physical pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis won\u2019t last, she\u2019s going to want to go back to work and make movies,\u201d I thought. But she felt total happiness as a mom that trumped any feelings she had about making movies. Marx, who is now 59 years old, went on, \u201cNo matter how much you love her as a dancer, singer, or actress, you should see her as a mom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rhodes started dancing when she was three years old, but it turned out that she was happy being a mom and giving her body the time to rest and heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe thing was, I never hurt.\u201d I was a dancer after all. Now it\u2019s getting annoying\u2026I never stretched before. Before I dance, I need to stretch. \u201cI love dancing, but I wouldn\u2019t mind if I never did it again,\u201d Rhodes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rhodes hasn\u2019t looked back since. Curse of the Crystal Eye, which came out in 1991, was her last movie role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marx got separated from the former Hollywood starlet in 2014. The next year, Marx married Daisy Fuentes, who was MTV\u2019s first Latina host.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to her boys, all three are becoming famous like their famous parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brandon now makes music and sings, and Lucas sings and acts and has been in TV shows like The Chicago Code, The Mob Doctor, Chicago P.D., and Parenthood. The youngest, Jesse, works on his music and joins a metal band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the movie Staying Alive, Cynthia Rhodes danced with John Travolta. In Dirty Dancing, she danced with Patrick Swayze. Rhodes,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-house-designs"],"yoast_head":"\n