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Patsy Swayze, a Hollywood choreographer, dance teacher and the mother of the late Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze, died Monday at her home in Simi Valley. She was 86.
She reportedly suffered a recent stroke.
Patsy Swayze taught John Travolta the Texas two-step in Urban Cowboy (1980) and served as the choreographer on two of her son’s films: Letters From a Killer (1998) and One Last Dance (2003).
One Last Dance was directed by her daughter-in-law, Lisa Niemi Swayze, who also starred in the film. Lisa was a student at Patsy’s dance studio, the Houston Jazz-Ballet Company, when she met Patrick, and they were married in 1975.
A native of Harris County, Texas, Patsy Swayze also worked on the films Liar’s Moon (1982), starring Matt Dillon; Younger and Younger (1983), starring Donald Sutherland; and Hope Floats (1998), with Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr.
She taught dance to Debbie Allen, Randy Quaid, Jaclyn Smith, Tommy Tune and others during her career.
Swayze moved to Simi Valley and opened a dance studio in the Los Angeles suburbs after the box-office success of Urban Cowboy.
Her death came two days after the fourth anniversary of Patrick’s death from pancreatic cancer at age 57.
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