Take a moment and imagine yourself at the Palace Theatre in New York City in the early 20th century. That’s where the art of vaudeville reached its pinnacle.

Thanks to a couple of modern-day vaudevillians, visions of such a time at the Palace may not be too hard to conjure.

“The Dik and Mitzi Anniversary Show,” a Whidbey Island Center for the Arts Family Series presentation, is a dazzling musical romance that follows the couple’s show business/love relationship through stages using all the best techniques of vaudeville at its heyday. It plays one night only at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9.

In this happy homage to vaudeville, the show is filled with songs, dance, novelty numbers, slapstick and intricate tap routines. Dik and Mitzi make the audience believe, like an old black-and-white musical, that love still exists for those who choose to see it.

It harkens back to a simpler time, when a good love story and music blended with a few comic and quirky bits and polished by hours of rehearsal was the entertainment of the day. Dik and Mitzi performers Wayne Doba and Andrea Conway-Doba would have fit right in with the top acts of the day.

“The Palace” made the careers of countless performers such as juggler W.C. Fields, roper-stud Will Rogers and Sophie Tucker, whose comical musical legend outlasted the art form.

Fast forward to modern Seattle, where about 10 years ago a producer decided to bring the same kind of variety entertainment under the big top of a luxurious 100-year-old Belgian tent.

“Teatro Zinzanni,” a three-hour cabaret show with a four-course dinner, was a hit from the start. With its line up of multi-talented acrobatic performers from all over the world — many of whom had performed with the blockbuster artistic circus show Cirque du Soleil — and comic geniuses acting as ringmasters, a live orchestra, operatic and rock ’n roll divas to serenade diners and one of the best chefs in Seattle, audiences ate it up, and another tent was opened in San Francisco following Seattle’s success.

Enter Dik, the entertainer, and Mitzi, his apprentice.

Eventually becoming a fleet-footed and funny dance and comedy team (who met at the show and then married), Doba and Conway-Doba were part of some of the first Teatro Zinzanni casts in Seattle and in San Francisco who made that show the success it is today.

In “The Dick and Mitzi Anniversary Show,” the story begins as the couple is celebrating their first wedding anniversary, re-creating several events from the first year of their marriage. Before you know it, Dik and Mitzi are dealing with the seven-year itch. The audience is brought along through the years of married life and all the tricky circumstances that go with it, led by these two sweet, zany and somewhat myopic lovers.

The talent of this couple knows no bounds.

Actress, dancer and acrobat Conway-Doba spent eight years with Cirque du Soleil, touring with “Saltimbanco” throughout Asia, Europe and North America and creating one of that show’s most memorable characters, the enticing and sexy Baroque. Previous to her circus career, Conway-Doba was a top gymnast on the national Canadian team.

Tap dancer Doba was hailed by Donald O’Connor as a “throwback to the old vaudeville days.” Doba has performed as an actor, dancer and comedian professionally for almost three decades and has shared the stage with a number of dance legends including the Nicholas Brothers and Honi Coles. It was a stroke of comic genius when Doba created the lovable character of tap-dancing waiter Dick Nimby especially for Teatro ZinZanni. The sweet Mitzi would appear at his side shortly after and the rest is history.

“The Dick and Mitzi Anniversary Show” is a celebration of the couple’s real fifth wedding anniversary and Conway-Doba said that although flying solo for a two-hour show is new territory for them, it was well-worth all thehard work.

“What is satisfying is that we’re responsible for the entire show,” Conway-Doba said.

“We’re responsible for the costumes, props, script; everything. I enjoy having an idea for a number and actually building it with our own hands so that when the show happens we have the satisfaction of having done the whole process. It’s rewarding.”

It’s tiring just thinking about building a show from scratch for two performers that entails two 45-minute acts of mostly physical comedy and dancing. The show is about 30 minutes of dialogue, she said, and everything else is the musical and comedy numbers.

“We’ve been playing all these different bits in Europe and at Teatro Zinzanni. We saw that we could collect all these pieces and put them together to form our own show,” she said.

When they are not traveling for work, the couple rehearses almost every day at their home dance studio outside of Montreal. They are always on the lookout for props in junk shops, and have picked up items they thought would never make it into the show, such as two human legs and a cricket puppet.

“Whenever we travel we can’t wait to see the customs guys open our prop box,” she said.

Although doing a 90-minute show by themselves is fairly new to them, Conway-Doba said the more they do it the better it gets.

“We find another joke or two every time we do it. Our confidence is boosted by that, because this show gives us the freedom to grow; to put new bits in when we want.”

Together, these performers embody a love story that surely would have made the Palace producers proud. They are keeping vaudeville alive through a combination of talent and their own love for each other.

The idea that they can perform to a mixed-audience of both older and younger people is a real boon, as well. Conway-Doba said she hopes they can deliver a bit of nostalgia for the older crowd while introducing young people to the dying art form of vaudeville.

“It’s just a pleasure,” she said.

Like some of the classic vaudeville entertainers of old, Dik and Mitzi are a song-and-tap dance duo for the ages.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, military and youths 25 and younger.

Call 221-8268 or 800-638-7631 for tickets, click here. WICA is currently offering a Family Series ticket package for $28.

People who order tickets by Oct. 9 will be guaranteed the same seats for the entire Family Series season.