There is a long history of dance that began in Fairmont and connects several women.

Karla (Larson) Grotting is a professional dancer, choreographer and University of Minnesota dance instructor. She is a founding member of Flying Foot Forum, a vibrant and bold percussive dance/theater company based in Minneapolis that will present “French Twist” at the Fairmont Opera House at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28.

“I’ve been dancing with this company for 28 years now,” she said. “We’ve performed in England, Wales, France, Brazil, Russia, North Dakota, Wisconsin. Both far from home and close to home.”

Though Grotting lives in Minneapolis, her story began in Fairmont. She is the daughter of Kay (Rosenwinkle) Larson of Huntley and Dale Larson of Welcome.

Kay began taking dance lessons in the late 1930s. Grotting said her mother would take the train each week from Huntley to Fairmont to take classes from Lenore Hyde.

According to her obituary, Lenore (Detert) Hyde was born in New Ulm in 1903. She went to Macalester College in St. Paul and later moved to Fairmont, where she taught high school English. In 1931, she married Lloyd Hyde. For many years, she operated Lenore’s School of Dance in her home in Fairmont.

Though it’s unclear what year her studio opened, an issue of the Sentinel from March 1, 1932, advertises that “Mrs. Lenore Hyde’s dance pupils will contribute some specialty dances at the ‘Blarney Ball’ annual benefit party of the Fairmont College Women’s club.”

Larson began taking classes from Hyde in the late 1930s and stopped taking them in the late ’40s.

Another one of Hyde’s students was Kathy (Wickert) Borchardt, who began taking classes from her in the late 1950s as a young girl.

“She taught us to be ladies,” Kathy recalls. “You had to wear the black leotard and tutu. We were young ladies.”

Those two students of Hyde would later go on to not only teach their own daughters to dance, but to open their own studios.

Larson moved from Huntley to Chaska, where she first opened a dance studio. She later moved back to Fairmont with her daughter, Karla.

A Sentinel article from Aug. 22, 1964, announced the opening of Kay’s Dance Studio, where classes would include tap, ballet, jazz, twirling, acrobatic, tumbling and ball room dancing. The article stated, “Kay has successfully owned and operated two dance studios in the Twin Cities area the past eight years. She started her dance career at the age of 2.5 when she was a student of Lenore Hyde’s School of Dance.” Kay’s studio ran out of the Elk Club, located on North North Avenue in Fairmont.

Grotting recalled what it was like growing up with a mother who was a dance instructor.

“I grew up thinking everyone had a dance studio in their basement. It wasn’t until I was in kindergarten and I went home with another kid and I thought, ‘Where is your dance studio? Why isn’t your mom wearing tights?'” said Grotting, laughing.

She speculated that her mother may have begun her studio in Fairmont to fill a void, as there was not any studio in Fairmont after Hyde suffered from several strokes.

Two of Larson’s star students were a pair of sisters, Juanita and Kathy Wickert. The girls were teenagers when they started taking classes with Larson. Both Kathy and Juanita were assistant teachers for Larson.

“We were always challenged. All we did was dance, dance, dance,” Kathy said.

Both Kathy and Grotting remember Larson for her elegance, drama and creativity. Larson created her own costumes. As Grotting noted, they did not have costume catalogs to order from back then.

“She would make 300 tutus for a recital by hand,” Grotting said.

Grotting said she remembers Kathy and Juanita as being inseparable. Larson helped Kathy and Juanita start their own studio in Blue Earth in 1966.

“We only had about 60 students. But for two girls who were in high school yet, that was pretty darn good,” Kathy said.

Both Kathy and Juanita went off to college. Juanita was attending the University of Minnesota when, at age 19, she suddenly became ill. She passed away soon after as a result of lupus erythematosus. One of Kathy two daughter’s, Nita, is named for her sister.

Kay’s Studio of Dance was in Fairmont from 1964-1967. She then moved with her daughter to the Twin Cities, where she would open other studios.

Grotting started her first dance studio in St. Cloud in the 1980s with the help of her mother.

“Then I got in a company in New York. My mother kept the St. Cloud studio running for me,” Grotting said.

She later moved back home and her mother passed away from cancer in 1990. Grotting then moved to the Twin Cities. She has been teaching dance at the University of Minnesota for 20 years. She also teaches at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

“I really think of my mom. I always thought her gift was teaching as much as it was a love of dance,” Grotting said.

“It was a natural gift for her which she shared right down the line. When anyone asks about my teachers and how I got into dance, those are the two names that I share,” Kathy said of Kay Larson and Lenore Hyde.

In addition to starting a studio in Blue Earth, Kathy had a studio in Jackson before she settled in Fairmont. She has been teaching dance for about 50 years and still maintains a successful studio. She has taught thousands of students and her own two daughters.

“When Nita graduated, she was going to go to the University of Minnesota and study business. Her dad (Glenn) said, ‘What do you really love to do?’ She said dance, and he said let’s go for it,” Kathy said.

Nita auditioned at Oklahoma City University and was accepted into the school. She earned a performing arts degree in dance. She also danced with the Radio City Rockettes for nine years and now runs Borchardt Dance Company in Fairmont.

Thirteen members from Flying Foot Forum will be here for the performance. Several members will offer a free class for those ages 8 and older from 5:30-6:45 p.m. on Thursday at the Opera House.

On Friday, there will be two free, seated-movement and music experience classes for residents at Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center. On Friday, Grotting will teach a class at Borchardt Dance Company.

As Grotting will be coming back “home” to perform, she said it is both sweet and sad because so much of her family who once lived here, including her mother, have now passed away.

“Memories are coming back to me of our time together,” she said. “My mother never got a baby-sitter for me, I went with to all of her classes. I have so many memories of that. I’ve now surpassed my mother’s age and I just think in some ways I’m living a life my mother would have loved to live.”