BANDS

Taryn Newborne & The Real Deal

Born in Memphis and raised in Atlanta, vocalist Taryn Newborne is rooted deeply in the soil of a rich musical heritage. She has often said she loves music so much, it hurts her feelings. After years of dancing in her local Lindy Hop scene, an organizer suggested she put her own band together for dances. Taryn Newborne & The Real Deal was born — and she found her home between singing and dancing.

The Real Deal is a tight, swinging unit built for connection. What sets Taryn apart is her commitment to the dance floor. She rarely walks in with a fixed set list. Instead, she reads the room and calls tunes in real time, shaping the night around the dancers’ energy. The band works within classic song forms, but each performance becomes a live conversation — musicians co-creating in the moment.

Rooted firmly in swing and blues, Taryn’s approach honors the era when bands played for dancers — when tempo, groove, and feeling mattered most. Her voice carries warmth, clarity, and rhythmic authority, inviting both movement and attention.

Since becoming a regular in her home scene, Taryn has collaborated with The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders, Paul Cosentino and the Boilermakers, Danny Jonokuchi, and Gordon Webster. Event appearances include The Jazz Continuum: Works in Process Residency, International Lindy Hop Championships, Beantown Lindy Hop Camp, Atlanta Lindy Exchange, Backwater Blues, Holy City Blues Exchange, Lindy Fest, and more.

When Taryn Newborne & The Real Deal take the stage, no two sets are the same — but every one is shaped by the dancers in the room.

Victrola Voilà

Victrola Voilà brings vintage French jazz and hot club swing to life — right out of 1930s Paris! Based in Rochester, NY, the band was founded by lead guitarist Melanie Moralez.
Expect the timeless sounds of Django Reinhardt and other beloved 1930s–40s swing-era classics. Let the rhythm take you back!

Tony Hiler Blues Band

Bringing together some of the best in Blues in Rochester NY, Tony Hiler is a regular in the Rochester music scene playing a wide range of music. Along with singer Darryl Parker and award winning guitarist Michael Grady , he’s putting together an excellent night of vintage blues sets for the late night dance.

Flower City All-Star Band

Our bands will combine to form the Flower City All-Star band for our Sunday afternoon dance, featuring a wide range of swing and blues styles to keep everyone dancing.

DJ TEAM

  • Picture of Brandi smiling while leaning on one elbow in front of her laptop.

    Brandy Smith

    Brandy (she/her) has been in love with blues dancing for over ten years, and that love shows in every set she plays. Based in Chicago, she DJs with feeling, depth, and a soft spot for powerful female blues voices. She has DJed across the U.S. and internationally, and brings the same grounded joy to the booth that she does to the dance floor. When she’s not spinning or dancing, she’s creating original artwork or probably mid-debate about a great TV show. Don’t forget to ask her to dance.

    Photo credit: Ben Hejkal

  • A photo looking over the shoulder of Omar as he sits at his laptop DJ'ing for an event. There is a blue light suffusing the scene and blurry dancers are visible in the background.

    Omar Myers

    Omar (he/him) has been collecting music for Blues, Swing, and Soul for most of his life. It wasn’t until after he started Lindy Hop did he decide to start getting people to dance. He began DJing in 2010. Since then, he has left-clicked tunes all over the world, in such locations as, Barcelona, Stockholm, and Seoul. Currently, he is a regular DJ…somewhere….

  • A photo of Art with headphones and a white suit jacket on. His shirt is from Bop Shop Records and he wears dark rimmed glasses, looking at his laptop.

    Artem Pugachev

    Artem Pugachev (he/him), or Art as he’s more commonly known, began his Lindy Hop journey with Rochester Institute of Technology’s Brick City Boppers. Shortly after joining the college swing dance club in 2016, he found a passion for DJing, and hasn’t been able to stop dancing or nerding out about jazz since! He now DJs regularly at Rochester’s local Groove Juice Swing events, and for the period of 2022-2025, was Groove Juice’s DJ Coordinator. The past two years, he also had the honor of being a part of the DJ teams at Stompology and Slow Dance Soiree. His choice of tunes tends to skew toward contemporary musicians, while honoring the classic jazz sound of the swing era.

    Photo Credit: Impassioned Art

  • Picture of Bonnie, a smiling woman with shoulder length green and pink hair sitting at a laptop.

    Bonnie Hodul

    Like an alchemist delighting in performing unconventional experiments, Bonnie (pronouns: she/they, alignment: chaotic good, high potential to be found cackling joyfully) endeavors to facilitate the magic that is possible when we play with unexpected combinations. Her primary ethos when DJing is caring for the dancers in a space through a commitment to warmly providing an open, welcoming, and joyful environment where we can find depth, curiosity, and play. In curating her sets, this means finding ways to seamlessly honor as many musical styles, rhythms, and cultures as possible. The signature musical styles that you’ll find peppering her sets are what inspire her own dancing: Arabic Fusion, Triphop and Swamptronica – genres that by their very nature are fusion-based, and that echo influences from her dance background in Bellydance, Waving/Pop & Lock, and Jazz/Blues. Bonnie is ever deepening her collection in order to bring you sounds that are both unusually satisfying and that feel like home.

  • More DJ's To Be Announced!