Texas Dance Hall Preservation: saving Texas dance halls, one two-step at a time

Staff

Jake Dromgoole, Interim Director

Casey Jordan joined TDHP as our executive director in February 2020. Casey graduated from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture with a Master of Science in Historic Preservation in 2009. She has worked on preservation projects that include President Lincoln’s Cottage, historic Texas cemeteries, the Texas Governor’s Mansion, and the Alamo, as well as several projects for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Before her career in preservation, she worked in non-profit art centers as an education director. Raised in an Air Force family, Casey has lived all over the country but counts Texas as her home. When she’s not out discovering dance halls, she spends time with her husband, three daughters, and two step-kids.

Jake Dromgoole, Interim Director

director@texasdancehall.org | 512-400-4315

Deborah Fleming, Outreach Coordinator

Deb Fleming served as the president of the Board of Directors for Texas Dance Hall Preservation from 2014–2017 and became TDHP’s first executive director in June 2017. Deb is the current business/tour manager for five-time Grammy Nominee and 10-time Blues Music Award winner Marcia Ball and her international tour band, based in Austin, Texas. Deb migrated into the music business after a 20+-year tenure as a healthcare executive running large risk-management companies in Texas, South Carolina, and Georgia. In 2005, she bought and managed a 1200-person-capacity live music venue just east of Austin, before being recruited by Ball. A fifth-generation Texan and San Antonio native, Deb discovered her long Texas lineage on a dance hall visit to Panna Maria, and thus began her love and interest in the historic halls.

Deborah Fleming, Outreach Coordinator

(Past Board President)
outreach@texasdancehall.org | 512-400-4315

TDHP Board and Advisory Board Members, 2017
(front row, L to R): Sam Seifert (for Ray Benson), Charles John, Steve Ray; (back row, L to R): Cynthia Inman, Jo Nell Haas, Deb Fleming, Linda Henderson, Steph McDougal, Kelley Russell.

Board of Directors

Stephen Ray (President)

With more than 20 years of marketing experience in the real estate industry, Tracy Rohrbacher transitioned to tourism in 2013 and currently holds a marketing position with a Houston-area convention and visitors bureau. She creates and curates content for marketing channels geared toward leisure travel, in addition to event planning. Rohrbacher earned the Certified Tourism Executive (CTE) designation by Texas Travel Industry Association and the Texas Destination Marketer (TDM) certification by the Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2017. A native Houstonian, Rohrbacher is also an active volunteer with the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

Stephen Ray (President)

Kelley Russell (Past-President)

Growing up in Houston, this almost- native Texan didn’t discover her love of dancing and dance halls until she moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas, where she studied archeology and anthropology. After graduation, Kelley worked as an archeologist, with projects that took her all over the state, exposing her to Texas’ unique cultural history. Through her travels, Kelley’s interest began to shift “above ground.” Her love of Texas history and architecture eventually led her back to UT, where she received her MS in Historic Preservation. Kelley is currently an architectural historian and historian for an engineering firm in Austin. In her free time, she enjoys hiking with her dog, Franklin; listening to live music; road trips, dancing, and continuing the search to find the perfect pair of boots.

Kelley Russell (Past-President)

Tracy Rohrbacher

Josh Conrad

Josh Conrad is a historic preservation consultant with HHM & Associates in Austin and has worked as a preservationist in Texas since 2010. He specializes in developing new preservation data management and analysis systems. He is currently a doctoral student in the University of Texas School of Architecture.

Josh Conrad

Clellan Hyatt

Clellan Hyatt brings a unique amalgamation of skill sets, blending the worlds of finance and music. As a Private Wealth Advisor with e3 Wealth, he currently holds his Series 7, 63, & 65 Securities Licenses and various State Life and Health Insurance Licenses. Clellan is also the co-owner of Lauritzen & Hyatt Business Management LLC, an Austin based music business management firm servicing national and global musical artists. Musically, he is a professional drummer that plays with Emily Wolfe, Otis the Destroyer and endorses Q Drum Co., Dream Cymbals, and Vater Drumsticks. A native Texan, Clellan currently resides in Austin with his wife Kelley and their Siamese cat, Nefertiti.

Clellan Hyatt

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Sehila Mota Casper

Natalie Roberts

For over a decade, owner Natalie Roberts has been helping residential home builders, and community and civic organizations build social strategies that engage and deepen relationships with their brand. She brings a wealth of knowledge beneficial to both private, public and non-profit organizations of any size.

Her unique expertise spans community and civic relationship building, large- and -small scale branding, unique project selling proposition, social media, product design and selection, concept planning, sales staffing and more.

Natalie Roberts

Matt Reyes

Matt Reyes is a Far West Texas native, who’s lived and worked in Austin for 18 years in the advertising industry, currently working at Publicis Groupe’s Razorfish. He has been instrumental in civic engagement projects throughout his life, lending his marketing and cultural expertise to non-profit groups like Voto Latino and Rock the Vote. Matt has been featured on C-SPAN, Al Jazeera, Washington Life, Minority Business Entrepreneur and has spoken at top tier events with The New York Times, SXSW, George Washington University, Voto Latino Power Summit, and The University of Texas at Austin.

Matt Reyes

Sam Seifert (for Ray Benson)

At a towering 6’7”, Philadelphia-born Ray Benson is considered a giant in the industry, but his contributions to music history, not his height, have made him a dominant figure on the music scene since 1970. As the frontman and founder of the world-renowned Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel, Ray has overseen the release of more than 25 albums, toured more than 150 dates each year, and won 10 GRAMMY™ Awards. He has been honored as the official Texas State Musician (2004) and Texan of the Year (2011) and has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association; the NAMM Foundation’s Les Paul Award for Technical Excellence & Creativity (2008); and the Texas Medal of the Arts Award for Multimedia (2011). As a producer, Ray has worked with such artists as Willie Nelson, The Avett Brothers, Aaron Neville, Aaron Watson, and Suzy Bogguss, to name a few. Benson is an active advocate and founding board member for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) and also serves on the St. David’s Foundation Board. He is the author of the 2015 memoir, Comin’ Right at Ya: How a Jewish Yankee Hippie Went Country, or, the Often Outrageous History of Asleep at the Wheel. Currently, Ray hosts “Austin Outer Limits,” a bi-weekly segment on Sirius XM’s “Willie’s Roadhouse,” featuring hand-picked songs from all kinds of genres from his personal collection.

Sam Seifert (for Ray Benson)

Jason Mellard

Jason Mellard is the Director of the Center for Texas Music History and Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Texas State University in San Marcos. He is the co-editor of The Journal of Texas Music History, general editor of the John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music History with Texas A & M University Press, and author of Progressive Country: How the 1970s Transformed the Texan in Popular Culture.

Jason Mellard

Jeff Campbell

Jeff Campbell has worked on historic preservation projects in Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. In 2019 he received an award from Preservation Texas for his work at Davis Cemetery. He has written for Plano Magazine, Stephen F Austin State University and Cowboy Poetry at the Bar D Ranch. He has also co-authored the books Texas Bluegrass, Hidden History of Plano, Football and Integration in Plano and Plano’s Historic Cemeteries.

Jeff Campbell

Priscilla Sauceda (Treasurer)

Advisory Board

Laura Acuna
Brendan Anthony
Amber Leigh Becerra, Schneider Hall
Noelle Bridges
Jeff Campbell
Patrick Cox, Ph.D.

Morgan DiBona
Bobby Galvan, Jr., Galvan Ballroom
Jo Nell Haas, Twin Sisters Dance Hall
Elaine Hanks
Linda Henderson
Cynthia Inman
Gary McKee

Julie McGilvray
Steph McDougal (Past President)
Marsha Milam
Abbey Road, Coupland Dance Hall
Joseph Stallone
Dan Utley
James Villafranca, Club Westerner Dance Hall

Support Texas Dance Hall Preservation

Your kind and generous help makes it possible for us to work directly with dance hall owners to provide technical assistance, workshops, grants for building repairs, and other resources. Please become a TDHP Member and make a donation today.

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