LAKE MILLS — Lake Mills will be rocking, rolling and even lindy hopping through the decades this Saturday with Dancing Through the Decades.

Dancing Through the Decades is a music and dancing show organized by the Lake Mills Area Historical Society. This is the first year that the show has been organized.

The show is a fundraiser for the historical society. The historical society owns a Victorian house built in 1901 in Lake Mills as well as an old country school. Evans said the operating costs for these two buildings get high, so the money raised from this event will help cover those expenses.

Historical society members Su Evans and Bonnie Rodberg said that there is a possibility this event could happen again in the future, but they won’t know for sure until they see how this year’s event goes.

Dancing Through the Decades was inspired by a Lake Mills native, Minnie Shaul, Evans said. Shaul is one of the first published women ragtime composers with her rag “You’ll Have To Hurry: Cake-Walk & Two Step” from 1900.

Evans said that since Shaul’s rag was published in 1900 and the Victorian house was built in 1901, it fit together nicely. In that regard, the show starts off with 1900s ragtime and Charleston dancing.

The show spans music and dance from the 1900s to the 2000s. After the ragtime, there will be the 1920s version of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” jazz music and lindy hop dancing from the 1930s, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and swing dancing from the 1940s, “Jail House Rock” and rock ’n’ roll dancing from the 1950s and “Good Golly Miss Molly” and dancing from the 1960s.

Finishing out the show is music from the 1970s to 2000s including “Dancing Queen,” “I Will Always Love You” and “Stay With Me.”

Evans and Rodberg said that the dancers, musicians and singers are all community volunteers but the show has a professional air to it. Volunteers are all alumni from Lake Mills and are coming from the Cedar Falls area; Iowa City; Omaha, Neb.; southern Minnesota and more. The performers are from ages 5 to 90s. Two of the lindy hop dancers are in their 90s — Evans and Rodberg laughed that they were probably original lindy hoppers.

The historical society bought the Victorian house in 2007. Evans explained that the house is rich with Lake Mills history, and they purchased the house to save that history. It was built by a banker at the turn of the 20th century. Some Lake Mills families have owned the house and in the past it was used as a hospital and a care center for the elderly and handicapped.

Evans said that the historical society held an open house right after they purchased the house and some of the visitors told her that they were born in the house or had their tonsils or appendix removed when the house was a hospital.

There is another fundraiser the night before Dancing Through the Decades at the Victorian house — a wine tasting. This is the seventh year of the wine tasting, and attendees will receive a commemorative wine glass for coming.

The wine tasting is at the Victorian house at 308 S. Lincoln St., Lake Mills. Cost is $15. Since the music and dancing show won’t be at the Victorian house, Evans and Rodberg said attending the wine tasting is a good chance to tour the house.

The Victorian house can also be rented out for functions such as wedding or baby showers and birthday parties. There are also some community clubs that use the house as well as out of town groups that schedule tours.

For questions about the Victorian house, Dancing Through the Decades or the Lake Mills Area Historical Society, call Evans at 641-588-3333.

 

Tickets, please 

Who: Lake Mills Area Historical Society

What: Dancing Through the Decades

Where: Lake Mills Senior High School auditorium, 102 S. 4th Ave. E., Lake Mills

When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday

How much: $10 for adults, $5 for 12 and under