I became a lindyhopper in 1999 in Dayton, Ohio, learning East Coast Swing and Lindy Hop from a then-16-year-old Stephen Edward Sayer (now a professional dancer and instructor in Los Angeles). My fellow dancers and I were part of the 1990s swing revival, fueled by the famous GAP commercial and bands like Royal Crown Review, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Before long, I was taking new classes every chance I could and traveling around Ohio, dancing 3–5 nights a week with a pack of smooth-lindy dancers from Dayton. I moved to New England for a few years and became part of the SwingMonkey group out of Hartford, Connecticut. I traveled all over the United States to dance events, many of which were held in historic venues that had miraculously escaped being razed and replaced with big-box stores or supermarkets.
Somewhere along the way, I ran into Brian Setzer after a show at the restored Indiana Roof Ballroom in Indianapolis. We briefly chatted about that fabulous space, and he said, “I’d like to do an all-ballroom tour someday, but I don’t think there are that many left.” The next day, driving back to Dayton, I wondered: How many ballrooms are left? The question nagged at me, and my initial quest to answer it made clear that I had no idea how historical and archival research worked. I was a professional writer with a Master of Technical and Scientific Communication (from Miami University of Ohio) but I needed more training. My husband and I moved to Texas in 2005 so that he could go to work for NASA and so I could earn a Master of Science in Historic Preservation at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, which I completed in 2008, with a thesis on the “round” dance halls of Texas.
At that time, I shifted my previous consulting practice from training and instructional design to historic preservation, and incorporated McDoux Preservation LLC in Texas in 2007. Today, I hope it’s not too immodest to say that I’m nationally recognized in my profession and have mentored many younger colleagues.
Along with two other dance hall enthusiasts, Patrick Sparks and the late Steve Dean, I co-founded Texas Dance Hall Preservation, Inc. in 2007. After serving on TDHP’s board of directors as its initial secretary in 2007–2008, I returned to serve again from 2015–2021 and throughout 2023. Currently, I am serving as TDHP’s interim executive director on a volunteer basis, to build financial sustainability and programming capacity. Texas dance halls, like the urban ballrooms of the big-band era that first captured my attention, are a historically and culturally significant building type but need help to continue operating productively.
Most recently, I spent the past four years (from August 2019 through December 2023) earning a PhD in Public History, focused on the history of the Jim Crow South and, particularly, African American cemeteries owned by city governments.
Today, I’m writing about dance halls and ballrooms, cemeteries, and the practice of historic preservation.