|
It's very hard for me to accept that Giuliano, Mr. Grossi, is gone. He was a most important
person in my life. We spent a great deal of time together both on and off the ice when I was a child and when
I was an adult. I was at the rink with him 6 days a week, 6 to 8 hours a day, from when I was 9 yrs. old until
I turned sixteen. During breaks between practices, I used to take naps at his apartment; we would also go out
for frozen yogurt. I remember the Indian woman who served the yogurt, she was his friend, and the nuts and raisins
he would put on his yogurt as a topping. Giuliano was always very health conscious.
Giuliano nurtured my ability to express myself through movement to a high degree. I would say
that expressive movement and the spiritual connection it brings me is one of the most meaningful aspects of my life.
Giuliano encouraged this relationship to movement in me. He used to set me free to improvise. That was the most
fun for us. I do that to this day, only through theatre now. He encouraged me to skate from my heart with a
refined attention to artistry. I am so deeply grateful to him for this. The lessons he taught me about body
positioning are deep in my muscles. He knew how to "talk" to the body. He knew how to analyze positioning
problems and how to set things on course to achieve the most grace, flow, speed, lift. He was a master teacher
of skating and art. He was like a sculptor who could see the graceful form in a piece of rock, or in our case,
wiggly little kids. He really had it all. He excelled at teaching figures, spins, jumps, footwork, artistic
style in skating and the embodied concept of flow. (He used to bark when I was doing figures, "It looks like
there's a wind storm blowing through your blades!" I could be so all over the place. I always thought this
expression was pretty funny, though I didn't laugh, that would've just added to the wind storm.) He was a
terrific choreographer and music designer. He would invite me to come up with my own choreographic ideas.
I loved that! He understood and transmitted the manners of being a self respecting artist, athlete, and person of
thoughtful intent. He was also great at teaching "showmanship". I felt that he always brought out the best in
his students, though often in a fearsome way which scared many of us when we were young. He was an old-style teacher,
a classical teacher, both in attitude and attention to technique and art. He was brilliant, creative, passionate and
extremely focused. It was very sad for me to see how undervalued he was in the skating community of California
(at least when I was still skating.) But he liked the beach!
I always felt badly, like I had let Giuliano down, because I did not progress further in the
figure skating competition circuit. I progressed far in terms of skill because of him and that was a wonderful
experience. I felt that I had failed, though, because I believed I let events in my life hurt me too much and
hadn't been tough enough to be the winner that would have been a tribute to all our hard work, our love and devotion,
our aspirations. But, a few years ago, after I had gone through a painful time taking care of a family member who
was ill, I confessed to Giuliano that I was sorry that I was so grief stricken that I had fallen out of touch with
him for several months. He said, very lovingly, "Oh, Sara, it's people that feel so much that are close to God."
What a gift he gave me in that moment. I stopped feeling so bad about feeling so much. He was a deep soul.
Giuliano attended my wedding just two months ago. He sat at a table with my husband Robert,
my father Roger, and me. Robert said, looking at my dad and Giuliano, "Here sit the two men who have had the
greatest impact on your life." As a wedding present Giuliano gave my husband and me a beautiful Italian glass
vase. It sits in our living room with graceful brush strokes of gold, yellow and black lifting off the blue
background and streaming up, up, up. You are in my heart and soul, Giuliano. Your lessons and your love. Thank you.
Sara (Staehle) Henry
|
