Where: Austin, Texas
When: year-round
If you like: music
Why you should go: Originally born in rural dance halls among Czech, German, and Polish settlers, Austin’s “honky-tonk two-step” is a swingier version of its traditional counterpart—well suited, with its malleable style, to crowded city dive bars. In South Austin, Sam’s Town Point offers wood-paneled walls, buckets of Shiner, and what owner (and blues-rock musician) Ramsay Midwood calls a “peopled by the people” atmosphere. In East Austin, the White Horse sees so much nightly boot scootin’ that the checkered dance-floor tiles have worn clean off. That doesn’t stop dancers young and old from stepping, spinning, and swinging to nightly live sets by local musicians Blake Whitmire, Beth Chrisman, and Armadillo Road, among others. At the White Horse or Sagebrush, newbies can take lessons from local pros Beth Coffey, Eric Moreno, or Vanessa Vaught. Once you lean into your first rock step, it’s easy to understand what longtime dancers know well: The honky-tonk two-step leaves little room for the anxieties of our daily lives. “It’s just romantic,” says Denis O’Donnell, who cofounded the White Horse and Sagebrush. “All that spinning. I look at it like the way the planets spin around. It’s love. It’s the gravity of love.”
G&G tip: Let the charming vocals and country twang of the Sentimental Family Band—who frequently performs at all three of the aforementioned venues—transport you to the days of Patsy Cline and Conway Twitty.
