Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

ITV television producer Andrew Robertson (left) laughs after series editor Ed Sayer gets stuck in the mud at Mountain Lake resort on Wednesday. They were scouting the lake for a place to hold the famous "lift" scene executed by Johnny and Baby in the movie.

Dance-offs

• All dance-offs take place at 4 p.m. and are free to the public. For tickets, e-mail ddaudience@itv.com
• Schedule: Tuesday, Friday, Aug. 27, Aug. 30, Sept. 2, Sept. 5, Sept. 8, Sept. 11, Sept. 14, Sept. 15 (Grand Finale).

Mountain Lake

• Mountain Lake resort is located in Giles County on the shoreline of its namesake — one of only two natural freshwater lakes in Virginia. It consists of a hotel with a banquet room, and numerous cottages spaced around the lake.
• To reach the resort from I-81, take exit 118 B, toward Blacksburg/Christiansburg. Follow U.S. 460 for 18 miles west toward Blacksburg/Virginia Tech. Stay on the bypass around Blacksburg, past Newport. Take a right on Virginia 700, Mountain Lake Road. Follow it for seven miles to Mountain Lake.
• For more information, call (540) 626-7121.

PEMBROKE -- Andrew Robertson teetered forward in his clunky brown waders to poke a stick in the water near Mountain Lake's receding line. It came back covered in muck.

"That's why [Patrick] Swayze had a stone to stand on," remarked Ed Sayer, who had a firm hold on Robertson's bicep.

The producer and editor, respectively, from England's ITV television network are quickly learning how "dirty" filming a "Dirty Dancing" reality series can get. The crew will begin filming "Dirty Dancing: The Time of Your Life" tonight, just three days before the 20th anniversary of the release of the cult classic, which was filmed partly at the Mountain Lake resort in Giles County. The crew spent this week, and an earlier visit in July, getting ready for the dance contestants to arrive.

On Wednesday, they scouted for a place to build an underwater platform, where contestants could stand to practice the famous lift executed by Johnny and Baby in the movie. But the sticky mud made the venture nearly impossible.

"Ah, it's TV," Sayer said as he kicked off his rubber waders.

The series will feature 16 British contestants who auditioned in England for the parts several months ago. The eight men have had considerably more dance training than the eight women to re-create the Johnny (Patrick Swayze's character) and Baby (Jennifer Grey's character) relationship from the movie. The winning couple earn a one-year contract with Bloc talent agency in Los Angeles.

Three judges -- British soap star Jennifer Ellison, Canadian dance choreographer Sean Chessman and Miranda Garrison, the original assistant choreographer from "Dirty Dancing" -- will decide the fate of the dancers at 10 public dance-off rounds. Garrison also starred as Vivian Pressman, an older woman who tries to seduce Johnny in the film.

The dancers will be judged on technique and creativity, said producer/director Victoria Watts. The couple who win each round will be invited to a lake cabin informally known as "The Love Shack," where they'll be treated to massages and a candlelit dinner served with cutlery used in the original movie, Sayer said. The losing couple will be escorted from the resort in a 1959 Ford police car lent by antique car enthusiast Donnie Martin of Newport.

Tonight, the crew will film the female contestants arriving at the resort to meet the male contestants, Watts said. The scene is meant to mirror the arrival of Baby and her family at the resort, she added.

Beginning Sunday, the dancers' time will be divided in three-day increments. On the first day, they'll pick a partner and begin choreographing a dance. The dance must include a 20-second combination of moves taught by Chessman and be consistent with the style chosen for that week. The contestants will be judged on how well they incorporate the 20-second combination into a larger 90-second routine.

Dance styles for each round could vary from pop to tango.

"The thing that joins all the dance styles is that they will have to be dirty," Sayer said with a laugh.

On the second day, dancers will engage in a "challenge." The film crew is relying on community resources to execute these challenges, which cannot be revealed in order to surprise the contestants, the crew explained.

On the third day, a dance-off will be held in the resort's activities barn. The public is invited -- and encouraged -- to attend.

The series is scheduled to air in England on Oct. 17 and will run through December.