Sarah Stein she was a young girl in Vienna dreaming of stages and dancing in the street
The neighbor boy he liked to watch her and she liked it when he came to see
He had a fire in his eyes, she always wondered where that fire would lead
But this was Europe in the 30ies and so one day Sarah’s family had to leave

She made it all across the ocean and she grew up in some far-off distant land
Just like that boy back in Vienna, people liked to see her dance
So she danced from coast to coast became famous then she became a wife
But that boy back with the fire in his eyes still crossed her mind from time to time

She’s oddly out of place and strangely out of time
A Vienna ballerina on the Dakota County line
She can’t shake the memory of the life she left behind
A Vienna ballerina by the name of Sarah Stein

She taught children how to stand on tiptoes and how to twirl around
And her husband was a good man till he passed away without a sound
Still she figures she found better luck than she could’ve ever hoped to find
now she’s living in a rest home with her memories on the Dakota County line

She’s oddly out of place and strangely out of time
A Vienna ballerina on the Dakota County line
She can’t shake the memory of the life she left behind
A Vienna ballerina by the name of Sarah Stein

When the grandkids come to visit she likes to tell them ‘bout life in the old world
They bring their history books and they’re full of pictures of back when she was a girl
She sees a young man in there,
he’s got a fire in his eyes, the sign of a skull on his uniform of black
This was Europe in the 40ies and she knows now she ain’t ever going back

Cause now she’s in another place and it’s a different time
An old ballerina on the Dakota County line
Still dancing in her memory, still dancing in her mind
That old ballerina by the name of Sarah Stein