Blues dance program to debut at Fort Worden

Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 2, 2026

PORT TOWNSEND — Mary Hilts and Jontavious Willis, orchestrators of Centrum’s Traditional Blues Workshop at Fort Worden State Park, are adding to their offerings this summer.

The weeklong workshop, which started in 1994, is a destination for guitarists, singers, harmonica players and other blues musicians. Each summer, they turn the fort into an acoustic-blues village.

But recently, “I realized that some folks just want to dance,” Hilts said.

Happily, she has a pair of blues dance teachers who were a hit at last year’s workshop. Damon and Kelsy Lynn Stone, who travel the world teaching blues moves, will return to Port Townsend for the week of July 28 through Aug. 1.

Hilts, program manager of the blues workshop for 13 years, has added the Blues Dance Track, five days and nights of learning and doing.

No partner nor previous experience is necessary, emphasized Kelsy Lynn, who’s been teaching various dance forms for some 25 years.

“If you already love the music, the movement comes easily,” she said.

For her, Port Townsend’s blues camp is a highlight of the year, with its abundant live music.

“Teaching is where my heart is: the joy and connection of it,” added Kelsy Lynn, who’s worked plenty of other jobs before this one.

The Blues Dance program is similar to the Traditional Blues Workshop’s Gospel Track, in that it costs less than the full workshop and it focuses on one topic.

Damon and Kelsy Lynn will teach a two-hour class in the morning, then comes lunch, followed by an afternoon dance lesson. Tuesday through Thursday evenings, participants can stick around and dance to live music by the Traditional Blues Workshop faculty members.

This year, those musicians include Corey Harris, Mara Kaye, Sunpie Barnes, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Ben Hunter, Andrew Alli, Eleanor Ellis and Washboard Chaz.

Blues dancers are in for a package deal: their workshop includes admission to the July 29 public dance, the Aug. 1 mainstage concert and the Blues in the Clubs nights around the fort campus on July 31 and Aug. 1. To learn more and to enroll, participants can go to centrum.org, select Traditional Blues and then click the Register buttons.

Damon, who has been dancing to the blues since he was a small boy at family gatherings, said this art form is a universal thing, a natural thing. People from all backgrounds, provided they keep open hearts, can learn and enjoy it.

He first met Kelsy Lynn at a dance studio in Minnesota, where both taught classes. Damon’s sessions were quite popular, while Kelsy Lynn’s were less so. At that point, she was not thrilled about him around.

Then, one night, they happened to be at Wilebski’s Blues Saloon in St. Paul. There they were, on the dance floor together.

Damon was “like butter,” Kelsy Lynn recalled. Something shifted at the saloon, something that would change their lives. The dance partners have been married just more than 10 years now.

Kelsy Lynn said she’s eager to hear from her fellow blues workshop teachers.

“Jontavious Willis will forever and always be one of my favorite blues musicians,” she said, referring to the Traditional Blues program’s artistic director.

Hilts added that Phil Wiggins, the workshop’s first artistic director back in the 1990s, often said that the blues — all of it, fast or slow — is dance music.

This year, Hilts plans to turn the Blues in the Clubs nights at Fort Worden into old-fashioned jook joints, where everybody can slide around a dance floor.

And that, Damon said, is how it’s supposed to be.

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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.