Being Baby

Test your knowledge

The grand tour was followed by a Dirty Dancing trivia quiz. It was frightening to not only discover your own in-depth knowledge, but to realise that others on this planet also know Robbie's surname, the song playing when Baby carries the watermelon and the registration number of Patrick Swayze's car.

That afternoon included a two-hour lesson in mambo, foxtrot and merengue with private lessons bookable afterwards. I learnt why you don?t step on the one or put your heel down. Sadly, we didn't learn the final dance, but in truth, with the combination of spaghetti-armed dancers and two-left-feet-folk, the end result would have borne closer resemblance to a drunken game of Twister. Everyone got very into it all. To quote Penny: 'God wouldn't have given you maracas if He didn't want you to shake 'em.'

Saturday night, the big dance, and after an ultra-cheesy film synopsis by our dance teachers, only one question remained: would our girls rule the dance floor? We had stiff competition. A North Carolina dance troupe was determined to show off their fancy footwork, even when the music changed tempo and Rick started playing Kanye West.

And in true Baby style, we also danced to 'I've Had The Time Of My Life', 'Hungry Eyes', 'Stay', 'Be My Baby' and all the classics in a euphoric display of swirling skirts and killer moves.

It's another world at Mountain Lake, the location beautiful, the experience, top cheesy fun. Leaving was always going to be hard, but I left scared, scared of everything, scared of what I saw, scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I was scared of walking out of that activities barn and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I felt when I'm dancing the foxtrot to Kanye West.

And if you don't get that, then this is no place for you...either that or you just need to see that film again.

For more information on Virginia as a destination visit www.capitalregionusa.co.uk or call 020 8339 6048.

Virgin Atlantic offers return flights from London Heathrow to Washington Dulles from £346 per person. Price includes all taxes and charges. For more information and to book, visit www.virginatlantic.com or call 08705 747 747.

Mountain Lake Hotel offers Dirty Dancing weekends starting from $460 / £223 plus tax for two people and includes dinner Friday and Saturday night, breakfast Saturday and Sunday morning, lunch buffet on Saturday, dances, tour, and trivia quiz. Private dance instruction starts from $25 / £12 for 30 minutes.

Dirty Dancing weekends are taking place 11 & 12 July, 15 & 16 August, 5 & 6 September and 21 & 22 November 2008. For more information, visit www.mountainlakehotel.com