Don St.Clair

Don St.Clair, Licensed Massage Therapist, Organizer, Ballet Parent

Hi! I'm Don St.Clair. I'm Sylvani's father. I am a self employed massage therapist and holistic health counselor, musician, and aspiring writer*. While I have studied dance myself (African and Contact Improvisation with my sweet dancing partner in life, Sylvani's mom Fiora), I have come to love ballet through watching my daughter learn at the hands of a master. Sylvani's dedication and passion for ballet and dance regularly brings both joy to my heart and tears to my eyes. Her grace, her musicality, her expressiveness, her elegance. And her talent for physical, comedic acting! We are most fortunate to have as Sylvani's ballet teacher John Grensback of the Oregon Ballet Academy. He really is big fish in a small pond of our little university town of Eugene, Oregon, having been formerly with such esteemed institutions as the New York City Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, and as principal dancer with the Houston Ballet, and we are grateful to have him here. When you see one of OBA's productions of classical ballet performances that he and his wife Meghan and OBA staff and us volunteers put on, it is so magical it is hard to believe you are just watching students of school age. While at seven years in to her training, Sylvani is just getting into the advanced levels in preperation for preprofessional training, her teacher has said she has all the ingredients necessary to make it to the professional level.  I have to say a few words about my mother, Liliane, who passed on three years ago. Sylvani has her classic Romanian/Russian lithe form and beautiful face and deep eyes, a look that John Grensback has said is one of the special ingredients Sylvani possesses. My mother told me she always wanted to study ballet. That opportunity was never presented as she was a Jewish refugee from Romania with her family who survived unbelievably through the heart of WWII, which ended when she was 10 with her family living in the ruins of post-war Germany. When I watch Sylvani dance, I see her grandmother in her, in her eyes, in her grace and elegance, and it is very poignant for me. Her grandmother never got to see her perform, but I know she would be so proud of her. I am waxing philosophical here, but seeing Sylvani dance is a gesture of beauty, an expression of affirmation of life, in the face of a history that nearly could have been very different for us personally. It just deepens the gratefulness I have for those of you who read this and are of support to Sylvani's dream, whatever that support might be. Thank you so much!

About Me

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