“Thriller” dance draws spooky season crowd to downtown La Crescent for 6th year

If it’s a certain Sunday night close to Halloween, there will be a large group of zombies dancing in La Crescent streets Michael Jackson’s hit “Thriller.”

Spectators crowded into a downtown La Crescent intersection last Sunday to watch the community’s sixth annual “Thriller” dance, where young and old performers portraying zombies recreated the famous Jackson music video.

Organizer and choreographer Meagan Waddell, dancing the lead part in the performance, said this year’s event drew a record group of about 75 “zombies.”

Waddell is hoping to expand the number of costumed performers in the future.

“Thriller Parade, La Crescent, Minnesota has its own Facebook page,” she says. “I advertise a ton on my own personal page. I know that people that participate do the same.”

“Maybe I need to have a keg” of beer at rehearsals to bring in more dancers,” Waddell joked, adding that this year’s dancers got the “Thriller” choreography down quickly at rehearsal this fall.

Several spectators said they had never seen the Thriller performance in La Crescent before.

One first-time viewer named Dawn said she was aware of the event in the past.

“We’ve seen it advertised, and we just thought it was a really fun thing for a small community to do, and we wanted to come and be a part of it,”she said.

The dancers performed the Thriller routine around 6 p.m. Sunday, doing it two times for the street audience.

Waddell said she’d like to stage more of the Jackson video in future years.