Canepa School of Dance

This popular dance school was formed in 1955 in Baraboo after local appliance and tire store owner Tony Canepa tap-danced at the Sauk County Fairgrounds as the "Mystery Merchant." Upon learning his identity, friends and neighbors begged him to give their children dance lessons. The handsome Canepa was a dancer at the University of Wisconsin. His svelte wife, Alberta, had taken dancing lessons from the third grade through high school. Eventually the dancing duo had 11 children of their own, and as the dancing school grew, so did the "dancing Canepa family." Over 3,500 students have learned to dance from the Canepa family. This volume depicts the yearly dance recitals that were staged to benefit St. Mary's Ringling Hospital, the Circus World Museum, and Camp Wawbeek, an Easter Seal Society camp for handicapped children located in Wisconsin Dells. There are also many photographs of the Canepa family, who as a troupe performed professionally for over 25 years.