Get Up, Jeanie: Flashdance Scene Takes on Whole New Meaning

With all the figure skating on TV over the last two weeks, couldn’t help but think about 1983’s Flashdance. Jennifer Beals’ Alex, Pittsburgh welder by day, dancer in a bar by night, dreams of a bigger life. So too does Alex’s friend and co-worker, Jeanie, who is a figure skater by day, waitress in a bar by night. One memorable scene (of many) captures the pressure of becoming a professional athlete; the solitude of an ice skater under the spotlight; a reminder of how years of practice and sacrifice can come down to one performance. The scene features Laura Branigan’s 1982 hit, “Gloria”; it’s upbeat, yet it takes on a different tone by scene’s end. The actress, Sunny Johnson, who played Jeanie, passed away at the age of 30, a little over a year after the film’s release, which now only adds to the scene’s already devastating portrayal of potential and possibility never to be fully realized.