February 19, 2020 1214 PM
ALPINE — Alpine’s citywide dancing competition is over a week away, but contestant Jenny Hatch is already hitting the campaign trail.
Hatch is looking for votes to proclaim her one of Alpine’s best dancers — and really, it’s more of a campaign chair. Hatch, the barber/owner of the Americana salon in downtown Alpine and last year’s winner of the city dance-off, jokes that her job gives her a “captive audience.” As she does haircuts, she has time for stump speeches.
Hatch turns to her customer: longtime client Roseland Klein, who’s midway through a haircut. “I’m cutting your hair,” Hatch says. “Want to vote for me?”
“Yes, I do,” Klein says. She’s been a customer for around 20 years — long enough that she remembers when Hatch’s 17-year-old son was as a baby. “He was adorable,” Klein says. “He still is.” After the cut, she gives Hatch 60 votes in the form of a $300 check to the Alpine Public Library.
Dancing with Alpine’s Stars is now in its second year, offering one of the more unique library fundraisers in the Far West Texas region. Here’s how it works: Dance partners spend weeks or months perfecting a three-minute choreographed dance routine to a song of their choice. Friends and supporters can then “vote” for them by giving a $5-per-vote donation to the Alpine Library.
On Sunday, February 29, at the Alpine Civic Center, area residents will get a chance to see the dance moves in action. The event runs from 6:30 until 9:30 p.m. and costs $20 per person or $35 per couple — a cost that includes complimentary snacks, sweets and one drink.
The first Dancing with Alpine’s Stars event last year was a breakout success. Around 250 people attended, making it a “packed house,” said Lee Smith, president of the Friends of the Alpine Public Library and a member of the library’s board of directors. The event raised $14,000 all together.
Events like this are important to help fund the city’s library, according to Smith. “The library gets over 50 percent of the funds to meet its operating costs from donations and fundraisers like this one,” she said.
Hatch, 51, likewise has positive memories of last year’s event. “There was a line around the block to get in,” she says. “They ran out of wine before it even started.”
“We were so nervous, but it was such an incredible audience,” she added. “They made us feel so good, and everyone got up and danced at the end of the evening. It was so special.”
That year, Hatch and her dance partner, Joseph Rosco, won with swing dance to Count Basie’s song “Splanky.” Rosco is a good friend, Hatch says, who she knows from a drinking club that’s “full of mechanics — and me.”
Hatch won’t give away too many details on their performance this year, except to note that it will be “blues drag.” But she and Rosco have been hard at work perfecting the performance, she says. She estimates they’ve practiced, on average, five hours a week since November.
Hatch has always been a thespian. “I love being on stage,” she says. She grew up in Missouri and Texas, later settling in Austin before moving to Alpine 23 years ago. “I’m a newcomer,” she jokes of her time in the far West Texas town.
A newcomer to Alpine, maybe — but not to the Lone Star State. “I’m a Texan,” Hatch stressed during an interview at her barber shop last week. “It’s important for people to know that. I was born in Texas.”
In Austin, Hatch got involved in theater. But friends always “needed their hair cut for shows, and they didn’t have any money, so I cut it for them,” she recalled. Friends complimented her skills and suggested she go into barbering. Hatch remembers telling them: “I’m an actress, not a hairdresser.”
Eventually, she changed her tune. “I realized it’s not so bad,” she said of hairdressing. She attended barber school in Austin and loved it. “I’m home,” she remembers thinking as she entered the profession.
In addition to running Americana, she also serves on Texas’s Advisory Board on Barbering. The group advises Texas lawmakers on everything from licensing and education to sanitation and enforcement. A woman of many interests, she’s also currently studying criminal justice at Sul Ross State University. Giving a hint about her performance this year, she says it’s a reference to her studies.
Judging from her interview, Hatch has a self-deprecating sense of humor — and that extends to her dancing skills. “I’m terrible,” she says. “In Alpine, we have no stars and no dancers. But we’re not going to let that stop us.”
Klein, the longtime customer, agrees. “The important thing is to support the library while also giggling at the same time,” she says mid-cut.
Despite the first-year jitters last year, Hatch says the warm and neighborly reception has her going into this year’s competition in good spirits.
“I feel good,” she says. “I’m confident. I’m going to pack that ballot box.”
