Dance Connections Newsletter

​

FOR SALE: I've been waiting for this day a long time. Goodbye Braun Hall.

I drove by my old stomping grounds yesterday and realized I am finally able to set down the grief of ending my time as manager. I was never allowed to make it what it could be. It was not my business to grow, and I would sit heartbroken with my hands tied behind my back, like a wife whose husband refused to rise to his potential.

The best dance floor in the county, just down the road from my home, sitting underutilized while the property slowly fell apart. Now I imagine it will be bulldozed like so many other historic dance halls and replaced with something more modern and profitable.

I no longer cry "save the clock tower." I accepted its death the day I resigned in 2021.

But Braun Hall is not just one building.

Its sale represents something bigger happening all across Texas. Historic dance halls are disappearing one by one, and with them goes something our culture desperately needs: real human connection.

Not curated online connection.
Not performance.
Not spectatorship.

Connection through movement, touch, eye contact, rhythm, conversation, nervous laughter, mistakes, and shared presence.

Couples dancing taught generations of people how to relate to one another. How to lead and follow. How to listen without words. How to move together instead of against each other.

And while dance trends evolve, I cannot ignore how much traditional couples dancing has been pushed aside in many Texas venues by the explosion of line dancing culture. Line dancing certainly has its place and brings many people joy, but it changes the social structure of a dance hall. Partner dancing builds interaction between people. It creates conversations between strangers. It asks us to risk connection.

When couples dancing disappears, something deeper disappears with it.

If we want these halls to survive, we cannot just mourn them after the fact. We have to support the remaining halls while they are still standing. Show up. Buy tickets. Take lessons. Bring new dancers. Support live bands. Teach younger generations that dancing is not outdated; it is one of the last places left where people still learn how to connect in real time.

The buildings matter because of what happens inside them.

And once the music stops, it is very hard to bring that culture back.