Getting off the mat after fire

Palisades inferno took a sensei's dojo and home but didn't change the way he shows up for his pupils

- BY HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS

CLASSES TAUGHT by the renowned Gerry Blanck have been a balm for students in this worst of years.

(JASON ARMOND Los Angeles Times)

"Face! Center! Low! Hit him hard!"

The shouts — a husky voice with a Southern surf bro twang — echoed in the dojo as a 4-year-old with a headband reading “Lil’ Dragon” punched up at a scowling mannequin.

“Don't jump. Just kick. ... Yeahhh!”

More shouts. A huge smile from the tiny boy, a karate student who says he’s almost 4 and a half, thank you very much. An even bigger smile from the shouter, sensei Gerry Blanck.

Nearly 11 months have passed since fire ripped through Pacific Palisades, and on this autumn Tuesday, Blanck was back doing what he’s done for 43 years: coaching toddlers, teens and grownups in the martial arts. For now, he is doing so in a temporary space in Santa Monica. His dojo on Marquez Avenue burned in the January firestorm. So did the homes of most of his students.

Like Eden Savoian, an 11-year-old Yoshukai green belt whose trophies and breaking boards burned in her dad’s house. And 60-year-old Tamar Springer, a black belt whose mother, overwhelmed by the stress of losing her longtime home, died three weeks after the blaze. And Theodore Read, a seventh-grader with a shy smile who confided in Blanck that he was struggling because his dog died in the flames.

Blanck’s classes have been a balm for his students in this worst of years. The sessions are loud, joyful, energetic — like Blanck himself, who barks commands as trainees smack one another with foam pads and laughs giddily when they do something awesome, like climb a rope all the way to the ceiling.

Families have leaned heavily on the silver-haired sensei, so well known in the Palisades that when he drives through town, people hang out of their cars to shout hello.