Cynthia Rhodes (born November 21, 1956) is an American retired actress, singer and dancer. Her film roles include Tina Tech in Flashdance (1983), Jackie in Staying Alive (1983) and Penny in Dirty Dancing (1987).
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Rhodes began her brief show business career working at Opryland USA as a singer and dancer while attending Glencliff High School during the 1970s. Raised in a Baptist family, Rhodes tried to maintain a clean-cut image in her acting roles and in the media, turning down scripts that required nudity and refusing offers to pose for pictorials in Playboy magazine. Sylvester Stallone, the director of Staying Alive, reinforced these facts by stating that Rhodes "would sooner quit the business before doing anything to embarrass her parents."
Rhodes played a small role in the fantasy musical Xanadu (1980) with her next role as Tina Tech in the musical film Flashdance. After Flashdance, Rhodes was cast opposite John Travolta in Sylvester Stallone's 1983 film Staying Alive, a sequel to the 1977 hit film Saturday Night Fever. Rhodes' character, Jackie, was an ensemble dancer, bar band singer, and some-time love interest of Travolta's character, Tony Manero. While poorly reviewed, the film was a commercially successful.