Winter Dance at Flagler on Saturday
MARROWSTONE ISLAND — The Dukes of Dabob, an eight-piece band dishing out New Orleans and Dixieland jazz — and a dreamy waltz or a Latin beat now and then — will play the annual Friends of Fort Flagler Winter Dance and Fundraiser this Saturday evening.
Admission is $3 per person or $5 per couple for the party at Fort Flagler’s vintage theater, 10541 Flagler Road. Doors will open at
6 p.m.
Proceeds benefit the Friends of Fort Flagler’s maintenance and preservation of the fort.
Group dance lessons, a silent auction, a dance contest and prizes are part of the frolic Saturday night as the Dukes supply the rhythms.
“I guarantee,” said singer Mary Lou Montgomery, “when we play ‘Figgity Feet,’ nobody will be able to keep sitting.”
The rest of the Dukes of Dabob are trumpeter Kris Grier, clarinet and saxophone man Mark Holman; trombonist Rex Rice; pianist Al Harris; bassist Chuck Easton; banjo player Sam Klippert and drummer Owen Mulkey.
Auction items Saturday night range from getaways and dinners out to Marrowstone wines, gift baskets and kitchen gadgets, all donated by local businesses and individuals.
“Our tax dollars cover only bare-minimum maintenance in this 784-acre state-owned facility,” park manager Mike Zimmerman said of Fort Flagler.
“Next to nothing is available,” he added, for “restoring and protecting the original structures and sharing the history of the fort with our visitors. That’s where FOFF helps out. We would not be able to keep up with the park’s many needs without the efforts of the Friends.”
Among the projects to which FOFF contributes are trail maintenance, procuring historic fort artifacts, updating playground equipment, the Junior Ranger program and early-spring campsite cleanup.
For information about Saturday’s dance and auction — and to see about donating an item — contact Steve Frenzl at 360-437 4044 or sjfrenzl@gmail.com.
Deep Zoo reading
PORT TOWNSEND — Rikki Ducornet, the artist and author who lives in Port Townsend, will come Saturday night to the Writers’ Workshoppe & Imprint Books to read from her new essay collection on Coffee House Press, The Deep Zoo.
Admission is free to the 7 p.m. gathering at the bookshop, 820 Water St.
All lovers of literature are invited; no reservations are needed but patrons will want to come early to ensure seats.
In her book just out this month, Ducornet explores eros, violence, dreams, fairy tales and art as alchemy — what she calls the Deep Zoo at the core of humanity.
The essays have titles such as “Her Bright Materials: The Art of Margie McDonald” and “The Egyptian Portal: The Art of Linda Okazaki,” both about Port Townsend visual artists.
Critics have been hailing Ducornet’s writing for years.
She’s “a novelist whose vocabulary sweats with a kind of lyrical heat,” a New York Times writer has said.
Her fiction works include Gazelle from 2003, Netsuke from 2011 and 1999’s The Fan Maker’s Inquisition.
To find out more and see some of Ducornet’s artwork, see www.RikkiDucornet.com.
Zydeco dance prep on Feb. 14
PORT ANGELES — Registration is open now for an all-ages zydeco dance class at Port Angeles High School, 304 E. Park Ave., on Saturday, Feb. 14 — right before Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience arrive for a concert that night.
To sign up for the 4 p.m. class, phone the sponsor of the show, the Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts, at 360-457-5411.
Admission to the class is $5 and everyone is welcome.
To add to all of this: On the previous night, Friday, Feb. 13, dance instructors Phil and Penny from Portland, Ore., will host an informal zydeco party at the Metta Room, 132 E. Front St., also for all ages.
The party will start at 7 p.m. with no cover charge.
When Simien and the Zydeco Experience take the stage at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. Feb. 14, the “orchestra pit” will be cleared for dancing, added Carol Pope of the Juan de Fuca Foundation.
“So you can take your zydeco experience to a whole new level – with freshly learned Cajun shakin,’” she quipped.
Tickets to the Simien concert — a celebration of both Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras — range from $10 to $35 at JFFA.org.