Crowds enjoy yearly “Thriller” dance in La Crescent on Halloween weekend

LA CRESCENT, Minn. — A fairly new Halloween tradition brought people from far and wide to La Crescent on Sunday to watch volunteers dance like zombies to Michael Jackson’s record “Thriller.”

Hundreds of people gathered at a downtown intersection on Sunday night for the fifth annual Thriller Dance, organized and choreographed by local resident Meagan Waddell.

She brought the Thriller idea from Lexington, Ken., where the public dance is featured in Halloween festivities.

“When we started here five years ago, there was maybe 10 or 15 zombies,” Waddell told the La Crescent crowd, “and now there’s over 60.”

Last year, the event attracted 42 dancers. Waddell said the dancers for this year ranged from 4 to over 70 years old.

For some in the audience, it was their first time seeing it.

Waddell gave out some awards, including for the people who traveled the farthest distance for the event.

That honor went to some visitors who arrived in the U.S. this year from Ukraine.

One of them, a girl named Karina, said this is her first Halloween in the US. She said she loves dancing. Her reaction to the Thriller Dance?

“It was so cool,” she said.

After rehearsing once a week throughout October, the Thriller group performed the dance routine twice around sunset on Sunday.