A one. A two. And away we go with the flow of Texas music on a Saturday night at the Twin Sisters Dance Hall, located just off US Hwy. 281 about six miles south of Blanco. The region is a hotbed of dancehalls that includes venerable venues in nearby Kendalia, Luckenbach and Fischer. Twin Sisters fits right in.

The nineteenth century dance hall stands among the stately Live Oak trees. The exact date of the venue’s origin is undetermined, but most estimates cite the mid-1870’s. The hall’s exterior is a checkboard tin pressed in the pattern of stone blocks and is multicolored from years of exposure to the sun and rain. Multiple casement windows surround the building to allow sunlight during the day. At nighttime inside the dance hall, thousands of tiny white lights wrap around the wooden columns and are strung across the ceiling to illuminate the aged wooden dance floor that dates back to 1911. On either side of the interior floor, dancers and visitors sit at long communal tables – just as their predecessors have done since the 19th century.

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Posted on April 18th, 2017

The proclaimed “National Beer of Texas” and Texas Dance Hall Preservation, Inc. are teaming up to help preserve and promote one of the Lone Star State’s most iconic cultural treasures-the Texas dancehall.

Lone Star Beer has launched the Tabs For Texas campaign statewide in over 200 locations. Large acrylic boot receptacles will be located at over 228 retailers and dancehalls statewide, while 12 oz. and 16 oz. cans of Lone Star Beer will feature either red or blue pull tabs. The idea is that, for each tab placed in the boot containers, $1 will be donated to TDHP to help in its stated mission of saving historic Texas dance halls and preserving and promoting the authentic music and culture they embody. The promotion continues through April 30th. The goal is to raise $30,000 to help preserve these historic structures.

For more information on Texas dance halls and the “Tabs For Texas” promotion, see this sponsored article at Texas Monthly’s website.

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Posted on March 8th, 2017