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A life lived round the world: Shoreline preschool teacher has a fascinating past
By: Tom Keogh, Journal Newspapers 09/07/2004
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Local teacher, Fanovitch Sebasstian (center), with her children Sidney (left) and Vienna (right), has lived a life most would only read about in a novel. |
Like a lot of people who turn a portion of their homes into preschools, the Richmond Beach house that Peneloppe Fanovitch Chanel Sebasstian shares with her family has a downstairs dedicated to activities and instruction for young children, while the living space has been confined to upstairs. Yet the school itself, Crescendo Villa, has the warm and stimulating appeal of a multi-arts studio in a homey space, an environment where kids can bask in music and dance but also stretch out on big, comfortable couches. Crescendo's personality is very much a reflection of Sebasstian, the school's owner and director. Relaxed, quick to laugh at life's coincidences and ironies but driven by creative possibility in whatever she does, Sebasstian has imbued Crescendo with her love of discovery. Visiting the school, one might find her and her students mixing dyes in water and eagerly anticipating color changes, then taking up drums and other percussion instruments for a prolonged, spontaneous jam that can never be exactly duplicated.
Sure, many teachers can lead groups of kids in drumming, but few spent a couple of years traveling on foot between West African tribes to carve instruments and study with regional musicians. Yet no one should necessarily envy the 33-year-old Sebasstian, whose African chapter - involving immersion in tribal cultures in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Marrakesh, and more - is but one part of a fascinating yet sometimes painful life that found purpose in instilling cultural confidence in children.
Born in Nordvik, Siberia, in 1971, Sebasstian was orphaned soon after and raised by grandparents within their Arctic tribe. It was not the local custom to name a child until individual character was pronounced enough to inspire description.
"They called me 'no-name,' and sometimes "daydreamer," Sebasstian says. "They gave me the name 'Fanovitch' when I was three. It means 'the sparkling of a snowflake,' which was based on my personality and white skin. My friends and most students call me Fanovitch, though with some kids who can't pronounce it, the name quickly becomes 'Sandwich.' So those kids call me Chanel."
Fair and attractive, Sebasstian has long, soft brown hair and a dancer's frame that bespeaks her years as a choreographer and performer with European and North American companies. Her accent is predominantly French while suggesting her Samoyed roots in western Siberia. In fact, she speaks at least seven languages learned on three continents, but there was a time in her childhood when Sebasstian could not communicate with anyone around her.
"My grandfather didn't want me and my sister to stay in Siberia," Sebasstian says. In 1974, the girls were sent to St. Petersburg in Russia, where Sebasstian studied classical ballet at the Kirov school under Martha Lepenshinskaya. She was later enrolled at the Danchenko Stanislavsky Choreographic and Music Conservatory of Irkutsk/Yakutia in Siberia, studied at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and much later took up flamenco in Seville, Spain. But at the age of 7, Sebasstian ended up in an orphanage, separated from her sister, still mostly familiar with her native language, and briefly adopted by an abusive family.
Ending up in a hospital for a severe injury, Sebasstian met a Russian doctor who recognized her dialect and helped her get back to the Kirov.
"It was amazing: Someone at last understood me," Sebasstian recalls. "I think that was the true beginning of my life."
Sebasstian continued to dance and eventually met up with her long-lost sister - who had been training at a different school - at a recital.
"We were so excited," Sebasstian says, "that my sister kept hitting me."
From there, Sebasstian returned to her grandfather and learned to mush (travel over snow via a dogsled). At 13, she could connect between distant tribes, but she also spent more and more time going to school and studying dance.
"Ballet saved me," she says, but she also notes that spending time with her sister's adoptive family exposed her to things she hadn't seen much of before, such as poverty in big cities.
Sebasstian defected to France at the age of 18, but by then she had developed a worldliness and sense of dedicated adventure that encouraged her to seek new challenges in Europe and embrace community life in Africa. She also studied early childhood education and psychology at the Sorbonne, another turning point in her life.
"Whatever else I was doing," Sebasstian says, "I was always thinking about getting back to teaching kids."
By the early 1990s, Sebasstian was in Quesnel, British Columbia, working for the Special Olympics and the Prince George Ballet School. She drew attention for her success at the former, and a newspaper profile attracted the attention of immigration authorities. A problematic passport sent her to the U.S. - Sebasstian says a border guard took all her money to let her through - but she found work in Oregon performing at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival and teaching at a Montessori school and Klamath Falls Dance School.
By the late 90s, she was in Seattle, degrees in art and child psychology in hand, and developing a curriculum within child care centers. Distressed by levels of boredom she saw kids experiencing at preschool, Sebasstian began Crescendo at her house in Greenlake, emphasizing non-biased cultural experiences in music, dance, visual arts, and some martial arts. The program succeeded beyond expectation, and Sebasstian opened schools in Shoreline and Richmond Beach. She and her teaching staff divide their days between the two.
Sebasstian's husband, D.A. Sebasstian, is a filmmaker, musician, and founder of Go Kustom Records, a busy label that has released his own music, as well as some interesting tribute albums and a CD by a band called Kill Switch...Klick. A gentle but very focused man, Sebasstian helps out with Fanovitch's students when needed. The two met when Fanovitch auditioned as a drummer for D.A.'s band. She didn't get the gig, but the two fell in love anyway.
For Mrs. Sebasstian, the Crescendo program (the Shoreline version is called Crescendo Cottage) is a confluence of her remarkable experiences and varied learning. On her website www.crescendo-arts.com, she reminds readers that the first eight years of a child's life is when he or she is most open to the arts and foreign language. Feeding interest in those subjects "gives children not only a stronger creative ability, but a greater understanding and enjoyment of all learning."
The arts gave Sebasstian a lifeline during her young life. She hopes to extend that tradition to many others.
