The Gabriella Foundation

everybody dance! is “the best program I have seen in this country." -- Renowned choreographer and New York City ballet soloist Benjamin Millepied.

Originally established in 1999, The Gabriella Foundation was founded by Liza Bercovici in memory of her daughter Gabriella, a thirteen year old who loved to dance. The Foundation’s initial program, everybody dance!, began in 2000 by providing 12 weekly dance classes to 35 children in a low-income housing project just west of downtown LA. That program has since grown to become the largest dance program in LA providing sequential, long-term dance training to underserved, inner-city children and youth. Today we provide approximately 200 weekly school-based and after-school/weekend classes to more than 2,200 inner-city students at six inner-city sites, including Camino Nuevo charter school campuses and our studios downtown. Yet we fall far short of demand for our programs: In 2012, nearly 1,000 children applied through our lottery for 125 available openings.

In 2005, we established Gabriella Charter School (GCS), the only dance-themed public elementary school in LA (and perhaps the nation), where students take an hour of dance each school day. While 91% of our students are socio-economically disadvantaged and 41% are English Learners, GCS’ 2012 API score of 894 make it one of the top-performing public schools in LA. In 2012, GCS was named “Charter School of the Year” by the California Charter Schools Association. LA Unified, proud of our school’s success, has established a unique long-term facilities agreement with us in Echo Park and built new dance studios for our use; LAUSD also invited us to triple enrollment from our original plan and expand to a K-8 continuum. Today GCS enrolls 463 students and maintains a lengthy waiting list.

Now, The Gabriella Foundation seeks to dramatically change the opportunity gap in dance education across LA’s public schools by training K-8 teachers – both trained dancers as well as those with no formal dance training -- to implement dance enrichment programs and integrated dance curriculum to ensure that every child in LA is able to experience quality dance education. Not only will ensuring access to quality dance education for all children improve Arts & Cultural Vitality in LA, but also Education (and thus Income & Employment), Health, and Social Connectedness for our City.

Our acclaimed dance faculty is comprised of professional dancers described by the LA Times as "some of the best children's dance instructors in the world.” These experts in dance have worked closely with our academic faculty over the years to design curriculum that integrates dance into “core” learning (English language arts, math, science and social science) both thematically and literally, all tied to state academic standards for each grade level.

After years of decimating funding for arts education, the LAUSD School Board recently passed the “Arts at the Core” Resolution, declaring that it would restore arts education funding over the next several years and treat art as a “core” subject. This renewed focus on arts education includes an emphasis on professional development and recruiting teachers who can integrate the arts into a standards-based curriculum. Gabriella is uniquely positioned to ensure LA’s teachers have the training and resources they need to successfully implement dance programs in schools across LA, benefiting tens of thousands of children in the years to come.

This grant would enable us to launch a comprehensive teacher training program with two strands – one for experienced dancers hired to teach dance enrichment classes at K-8 public schools and after-school programs, and one to train certified K-8 teachers who are not experienced dancers in ways to integrate dance elements into their daily curriculum. In addition to disseminating our award-winning curriculum for use in other schools, we will offer teacher training workshops, web-based resources and interactive support including (low-tech) videos with “demo lessons,” and establish a hub for high-quality dance education in LA.

As LAUSD has recognized, high-quality arts education for children “increases test scores across every subject area, lowers dropout rates and helps close achievement and opportunity gaps for students of color and students from low-income families; . . . increases average daily attendance and student enrollment; [and] . . . young adults of low socioeconomic status (SES) . . . earn better grades, demonstrate higher rates of college enrollment, achieve higher GPA scores, develop greater self-esteem and exhibit higher levels of civic involvement.” (http://home.lausd.net/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=273222&id=3) In short, dance education will benefit everyone in LA.