Canyon Resident Stephanie Kanan Loses Oasis Palisades in Fire

By Laurel Busby

News & Information Editor

Boca resident Stephanie Kanan co-owns Oasis Palisades, one of the businesses in the Marquez Knolls that was lost in the Jan. 7 fire.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Kanan said. “As many times as I’ve been in the Palisades and seen all the destruction, it still hasn’t sunk in.”

Oasis Palisades, which was part of the building complex that included Yin Yang Dermatology (owned by Kanan’s business partner Toni Balfour), Vittorio Ristorante and Pizzeria, Gerry Blanck’s Martial Arts Center, Knolls Pharmacy, and other businesses, was leveled in the fire along with nearby schools and, of course, many surrounding homes.

Seventeen years earlier, Kanan and Balfour opened Oasis Palisades to provide massage therapy, facials, acupressure, and acupuncture. Later, acupuncturist Balfour added a second specialty in herbal dermatology. The business thrived, and the neighboring business owners and workers became friends.

Stephanie Kanan on the doorstep of Oasis Palisades before the fire, while the destroyed center is pictured on the right.

Kanan, who did massage and acupressure at Oasis Palisades, also is a belly dancer with a professional dance company that rehearsed most Sunday afternoons at Blanck’s studio. She also spent Sunday mornings at Calvary Church, stopping at a local eatery to pick up lunch, and sometimes even seeing a client at Oasis. Many of the people at these places had become friends about whom she cared deeply.

“When I think about the pain and loss and tragedy, I don’t just think about myself,” Kanan said. “Half the people in my church lost their homes, and half my clients did too.”

Luckily, because almost all of Rustic and Santa Monica Canyon survived the fire, Kanan didn’t lose her home, and she has also been able to partially restore her business by both traveling to some clients who have space to store a massage table and by renting a temporary space at 530 Wilshire in Santa Monica.

Some of her clients have relocated as far as Manhattan Beach or Calabasas, but many have stayed closer. Her new one-room office has been open by appointment only since Feb. 3, and people can get massages from either Kanan or two associates. Facials from Maria Iorillo, who lost her house in Paseo Miramar, are also available. Since the space is so small, they can only see one client at a time, but she hopes to find a two-room space soon.

As thankful as she is to have work, she mourns the former business community, who mainly keeps in touch now through a group text, although the pharmacy owners recently hosted a barbeque that many attended.

“We all miss each other,” said Kanan, who is looking forward to the day that they can return to Pacific Palisades and be a regular part of each other’s lives again. She feels some guilt about being able to move forward with her business when many of her friends are struggling. “While we were able to get another building and start over, how do places like the liquor store and pharmacy do the same? It’s not as easy for them.”

Some of her family members are also starting over in different ways. Her mother-in-law, Sharon Kanan, lost her Alphabet Street home of 65 years, and her son, Josh, 33, has been doing debris removal as a private contractor because his work as a set dresser had lessened due to the entertainment industry downturn.

But Kanan has been continuing down the path that began after high school when she enrolled in school to become a medical assistant. After graduation in 1985, she started working for a holistic medical doctor, which led her to learn about massage.

“Massage is therapy; it’s good for the body and longevity,” Kanan said. “It helps with circulation and blood flow and lymphatic drainage…. There’s also something rewarding about helping people. Honestly, I feel like perhaps it’s a gift from God.”

After a decade at her first workplace, she became the office manager for Palisades chiropractor Dr. Bruce Beddoe, where she also did massage and ultrasound therapy. She worked there for 18 years and was lucky enough to meet both Balfour and her future husband, Eddie, there when he brought his father for treatment.

The couple eventually raised two children, Josh and their daughter, Rah, 26, a drummer in the band Faetooth and a music teacher at Amazing Music, which was also lost in the fire.

While her family was growing, Kanan was invited by Balfour to start their own healing center in Marquez Knolls. They christened the spot Oasis Palisades, which, before the fire, was a warm and inviting space with custom cabinetry, a “puzzle piece of solid wood” for a reception desk, and displayed jewelry and crystals that Kanan had collected over 17 years. They also had special equipment to make remedies for Balfour’s herbal dermatology treatments.

Oasis had some insurance, but not enough, and Kanan had none, which meant her $5,000 computer and crystals among other things were a complete loss. But she plans to recreate Oasis Palisades in the same building one day, even though it will never be exactly the same.

“What we lost was something very special; that’s the hardest to fathom,” Kanan said. “I get sad when I think about the things that we lost, and I get sad about other families, who had things that were special too…. It’s so much that’s just gone.”

The Kanan family from left to right: Josh, his wife, Hope, their children, Ocean, Luna, and Savannah, Rah, Eddie, and Stephanie.