Soon, the sounds of kicking boards and slapping mannequins will echo through the former Pilates station on Palisades Drive.
Soon, karate students – toddlers, teenagers and adults – will fill the space, listening to the announced instructions of their silver-haired guru, Gerry Blanck.
That’s because, soon, the Gerry Blanck Martial Arts Center, a small but beloved business that burned down in the Palisades fire 15 months ago, will be coming home.
Gerry Blanck is planning a grand opening at his new location on June 1st.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
“Everybody’s surprised. They’re so happy,” Blanck, 71, said of his students and their families. “I’ve always wanted to come back.”
Blanck, who taught in Pacifc Palisades for 43 years before the fire, wasn’t sure if he would be able to return after the flames tore through his Marquez Avenue martial arts studio and the apartment he shares with his daughter, who runs the business.
Most of his students lost their homes, and he didn’t know if enough would return to the Palisades to open the doors. He quietly worried about money, even when he resumed classes in Santa Monica, where another sensei let him borrow space.
In January, Blanck got help: a $50,000 grant from Build Back Pali, a nonprofit started by three young men — including a former student — to help small businesses get back into the community.
This month, Blanck began a three-year lease on a new roughly 1,200-square-foot space about a mile from his old dojo, in a once-unscathed shopping center in the Highlands area that includes an Italian restaurant, a wine shop and a Starbucks. He is already teaching private lessons, and the grand opening is scheduled for June 1.
The Build Back Pali grant — which was contingent on Blanck signing a lease at the Palisades — covered his deposit and several months’ rent, he said.
Adam Deloje kicks the punching bag in Blanck’s studio.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Small businesses like Blanck’s are “really the heart of the Pacific Palisades community; they’re the places where families come together, kids grow up, and people feel connected,” said 17-year-old Mason Cohen, who founded the nonprofit with his best friends, Jake Yoon and Dylan Fullmer.
The boys met in kindergarten at the Village School in Palisades – a new facility.
Cohen, a junior at Windward School in Mar Vista who returned to the Palisades late last year, took martial arts lessons from Blanck when he was 5 years old. He remembers learning how to chop wood with one fist. Blanck, he said, “has not only been a great coach but has been at the center of the Pali community for decades.”
In the Palisades, T-shirts from Blanck’s dojo are everywhere. He instructed many of the parents of his young students. Sponsors local Little League teams. He marches every year with a group of children in the local Fourth of July parade.
A former world kickboxing champion who came to the Palisades from the Florida Panhandle in 1982, Blanck met boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard and professional actors Tom Hanks and Steve Guttenberg. He taught actress Pamela Anderson how to kickbox when she starred in “Baywatch.”
Blanck has been holding private lessons ahead of the grand opening next month.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Blanck’s return was a boost for Pacific Palisades, which is still a major construction site. Many businesses have not yet reopened, if they did. Many residents who lost their homes are still living in other areas.
Palisades Village, the luxury shopping center owned by billionaire developer Rick Caruso that was saved by private firefighters, will be closed until August. Reconstruction of the demolished Palisades branch library is still a long way off, although a temporary library opened in two portable buildings in February. Gelson’s Markets announced in March that it would eventually rebuild in the Palisades, but “formal development plans have not been finalized.”
Blanck said he has about 70 students — less than half of his roster before the fire. But nearly all of his current students plan to follow him back to the Palisades, and some who didn’t want to go to his temporary location in Santa Monica plan to sign up for classes again.
Robert Read said his 12-year-old son, Theodore, who earned his black belt just before Christmas, is happily following Blanck into the new dojo.
The Reads lost their home in a fire and live, for now, in Brentwood. As soon as Blanck started teaching in Santa Monica, Read brought her quiet, sad son back into the classroom. It was therapeutic.
“The fire drove away a lot of people who have been there for a long time, so to see him come back means a lot to a lot of people,” Read said. “It gives them hope, you know?”
Blanck plans to add a wall of mirrors and display photos of her students in the airy space.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Kiley Hoiles, a 15-year-old who also lost her home in Palisades, will continue to learn at the new karate studio. He recently earned his black belt, too, and he doesn’t think about stopping now.
“I’m so happy for them and proud of how far they’ve come!!!” he said in a message to Blanck and his daughter, Danika Dallas.
In March, Blanck, who had been living for a while in Santa Monica, moved into an apartment across the street from his new studio.
Walking through an airy studio with high ceilings and pale wood floors, he talked excitedly about his plans. He will cover one wall with mirrors and hang punch bags. He will frame pictures of his students and hang them everywhere. And you will show their lips – so many lips.
Asked if he would post pictures of the fire, he remained silent.
Probably not.
