The Austin Swing Syndicate holds one of the longest running, best attended weekly dances in the country. Started in 1999, our Thursday night dance at the Fed consistently draws 200-300 people every week. But how did we get started?
A long time ago in a city not so far away… It was early 1999 and Austin had live swing music at almost every club in town. Swing was a craze, and everywhere. However, as the Gap commercial’s influence waned, the Austin swing dancers were running out of live music venues. We needed a place to dance consistently that we could call home.
Burk McRae and Amanda Matthews came up with the idea to start our own organization. They got everyone involved, got the money together (with the help of many of the other dancers in town), and got it started in June 1999. At first, no one thought it would work. But even early on there were more people than everyone expected. And as the Thursday night Fed dances became well-known, more and more people came.
Later that year, a large group of the dancers in town went to Swing Out New Hampshire and came back after seeing how amazing the dancers were around the country and just how great they could create Austin’s community. Out of that, another Austin tradition was born: the Austin Lindy Exchange. And in November 2000, the first ALX took place, the 72 degrees exchange. Of course, we happened to have a cold front blown in and instead of the average 72 degrees, it was closer to 42! But who controls the weather…
Since then, we have had many contributors to the success of the Austin Swing Syndicate and the Austin Lindy Exchanges. See our incomplete list below!
FoundersBurk McRae
Amanda Matthews
Officers1999 (June – November)
President – Burk McRae
VP – Amanda Matthews
Beth Mayoff
Keely Locke
Matt Stephans
Technical – Jason Baker
1999–2000
President – Karin Cross
VP – Christine DeAsis
Financial – Hong Tran
Secretary – Brandy Bassett
Social – Carol Harrison
PR – Keely Locke
Technical – Matt Stephans
Events – Harold Clarke
Historian – Mandy Akin
2000–2001
President – Christine DeAsis / Brian Chen
VP – Brian Chen
Financial – Josh Ellinger
Secretary – Susan Snyder
Social – Michelle Maness / Angela Kieke / Sarah Akin
PR – Keely Locke
Technical – Matt Stephans
Events – Harold Clarke
Historian – Christine Price
2001–2002
President – Josh Ellinger
VP – Mandy Akin
Treasurer – Matt Stephans
At Large – Laura Malloy
At Large – Burk McRae
At Large – Jeramie Anderson
At Large – Nathan Malone
At Large – Angela Kieke
At Large – Sarah Akin 2002–2003
President – Matt Stephans
VP – Nathan Malone
Treasurer – Matt Fisher
At Large – Matt Jones
At Large – Craig Williams
At Large – Clint Zehner
At Large – Alexis Furuichi 2003–2004
President – Matt Stephans
VP – Shellie Faught
Treasurer – Matt Fisher
Secretary – Alexis Furuichi
Technical – Clint Zehner
At Large – Brian Lasseter
At Large – Nikolaus Walch
2004–2005
President – Matt Fisher
VP – Mary Grabhorn
Treasurer – Patrick Warren
Secretary – Wendy Conti
At Large – Brian Lasseter
At Large –Chichi Nwokolo
At Large – Keryn Glasser
2005–2006
President – Tina Davis
VP – Clint Zehner
Treasurer – Peter Sassone
Secretary – Susan Shelton
At Large – Martin Gao
At Large – Andrew Lee
At Large – Chris Zehner
2006–2007
President – Scott Angelius
VP – Laura Glaess
Treasurer – Jennifer Humphreys
Secretary – Mike Roberts
At Large – Martin Gao
At Large – Mike Sluyter
At Large – Karri Martin
Coordinators:
Staffing – Kira Withrow
DJ – Colin Wise
Tech – Clint Zehner
PR – Brian Lasseter
Historian – Jordan Forbes 2007–2008
President – Stephanie Jordan
Vice President – Keith Shapiro
Secretary – Alice Johnson
Treasurer – Lenore Saltz
At Large – Brian Lasseter
At Large – Jordan Forbes
At Large – Bill Borgida ExchangesNovember 2000 - 72 degrees
November 2001 - UnExchange
November 2002 - Dot Com Lindy Bomb
November 2003 - Fraternities
November 2004 - The “We don’t need a theme!” theme
November 2005 - Tour de Lindy
November 2006 - Keep Lindy Weird
November 2007 - Experience it again as if it's your first time
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