Leaving a Legacy

Make me an angel who flies from Montgomery. Make me a poster from an old rodeo. Just give me one thing that I can hold on to. To believe in this livin’ is just a hard way to go. 

Bonnie Raitt

A Passion for Education Reform through the Arts

Changing lanes is tough enough when it’s your personal choice to explore a new road to a more meaningful life. Overcoming the sense of inertia and self-doubt to choose a way forward can be daunting work. But as we know, some people don’t have a choice. Maybe you are one of those who have been dealt a severe and sudden blow—your life upended by outsourcing, downsizing, divorce, or an unexpected illness. When your world comes crashing down, it’s not uncommon to feel a sense of discontinuity from your former identity. When your dreams no longer fit your reality and you are so vulnerable, can you—indeed, should you—confront your misfortune and reinvent yourself at the same time?

The answer came to me recently as I was writing a series of articles about baby boomers who left successful careers to make a difference in one of society’s most critical problems—education. Marco Petruzzi  and Allan Rudnick  both reported how they rekindled the passion in their lives by committing to this worthy cause. I was looking for other inspirational stories like theirs, when I realized that I need look no further than the Executive Director and Founder of the Gabriella Axelrad Education Foundation (which I am privileged to serve as a board member). If you are thinking about a lane change so that you can impact the lives of young people in a meaningful way, Liza Bercovici’s story will inspire you to make it happen. And if lemons have been served up to you, Liza will inspire you to make some lemonade.

“I specialize in starting something from nothing,” says Liza about her history as a serial entrepreneur. As examples of her modus operandi, she cites several businesses she created, like her own family law practice which enabled her to spend more time with her kids, and the small company she started pairing homeowners with investors in condos. Liza has never hesitated to stick her neck out to accomplish a goal, no matter how unfamiliar the territory. “I’m willing to say I don’t know what I’m doing,” she explains with humility. Though not herself an educator, she succeeded by attracting great advisors to her cause in founding the highly successful after-school program, everybody dance! as well as the dance-themed Gabriella Charter School.

How?

It helps that she is a visionary, tenacious, and is willing to work harder than everyone else. She is an excellent communicator, her talent perhaps instilled by her screenwriter stepfather and nurtured as a journalist for the Washington Post. But these qualities were no guarantee that she would survive a devastating family tragedy. That she was able to accomplish so much in the face of adversity is a great testament to the strength of her spirit and the love for her daughter, Gabri.

There but For Fortune

In 1999, Liza was enjoying a family biking vacation in the Grand Tetons.  They were finishing their last ride on their last day when tragedy struck. A van swerved as its driver was changing a CD, killing 13 year-old Gabri. “She was the light of our lives,” says Liza, “funny, kind, and very loving.” Gabri’s light had shown on all around her. Her classmates recall that she would always seek out a lonely fellow student in the school cafeteria to assure that no one sat alone, unbefriended.

Liza had enjoyed an exceptionally wonderful relationship with her daughter, despite Gabri’s awkward age. Gabri would get irritable only when she felt her mother was too busy to spend time with her, so Liza made sure that Friday afternoons would be their time—to go to the movies, play racquetball, or just be together. Tragically, in an instant, Gabri was gone.

Liza went into a tailspin. She sat in her home staring at the walls. She could no longer endure the petty squabbles between warring sides in her family law practice. Fighting over 3- vs. 4-day visitation rights became intolerable when she felt her own loss was so much greater than that of her clients. Though Liza learned to live with the pain—a struggle that continues to this day—she knew that real healing could start only from doing something meaningful in Gabri’s memory.

You Got To Have Friends

Gabri loved to dance. So when a friend sent Liza a series of articles about a nun who had started St. Joseph Ballet (since renamed The Wooden Floor), an after-school dance program for low-income kids in Santa Ana, California, Liza grabbed this idea as a life-line. She was determined to create a similar program for disadvantaged kids in Los Angeles. Even though, as she admits, “I didn’t know anything about dance, or non-profits for that matter,” she brushed aside any self doubts. What she did know was how to listen and to attract just the right people to help her, always willing to give the credit to her supporters.

Her first angel was one of her clients, Rob MacLeod, a real estate developer who was converting the old Sheraton Townhouse near MacArthur Park into low income housing. The surrounding community was overwhelmingly Hispanic with some Korean families, all living in a crowded neighborhood that only six years earlier was blighted by riots. The schools were uniformly terrible and the kids had little opportunities for recreation. When Liza described her idea for an after-school dance program to him, Rob offered her the use of the property’s grand banquet hall rent free. This gesture of support brought tears to Liza’s eyes, realizing for the first time that her dream might come true.

She recruited Carol Zee, a former professional dancer and educator, to run the program with the proviso that it be open to all kids, not just the ones with the proper turnout and correct feet—the basic markers for potential dancers. Liza was adamant that all kids have the opportunity that Gabri had: to experience the joy of dance and to gain the self-confidence and poise that dance training provides.

Liza and Carol sent out solicitations to everyone they knew and were gratified by the surprising outpouring of support. Many of the parents of Gabri’s school friends offered their help, filling in Liza’s gaps in knowledge and experience where they could. One friend came up with the name, everybody dance! which has stuck ever since, because it captures so well the philosophy that Liza wanted for the program she envisioned to honor her daughter’s love of dance.

The volunteer group raised $60,000 to start-up the program and pay for a beautiful maple floor for the facility. Meanwhile, Liza and Carol went around to the neighborhood schools and parks, talking to teachers and passing out leaflets announcing the opening of the program. On opening day, Liza was afraid no one would show up, but parents started pouring in with their kids in tow—enough to fill twelve classes a week, growing to 30 by the Fall.

Now everybody dance! offers 215 classes a week in five locations in all dance forms from ballet and tap, to hip-hop and jazz. The impact on the kids’ lives is evident for all to see, as the teachers and parents attest.

 “I’d jump through fire and water to get my daughter here. Because of this program, my daughter has done a total 180 degrees. She has a whole new level of confidence. Her social behavior was real bad, she was extremely shy; since taking the class, she does spins in the aisles of the grocery stores and she loves showing her cousins everything she learns. After her first recital, I cried, I was so proud of her because I thought she would freeze on stage due to her shyness but she did it!!!”  —everybody dance! parent 

 Yes, a few very talented kids have gone on to professional training and careers in world-class dance companies. But the broader impact has been felt not by the stars, but by the ordinary kids. They have benefited by a growth in their self-esteem, a deepening of their creative impulses, and a sense of what it means to work together as a team to reach a common goal. Anyone who has watched these kids go through their routines during class or in performance is blown away. I know I was and couldn’t wait to sign up to help in any way that Liza thought I might add value.

If Not Now—When?

If an after-school dance program can have such a positive impact on kids, then imagine what can be accomplished if you have the children all day long, every day. With the success of everybody dance!, Liza’s laser focus broadened to encompass a new vision—a dance-themed charter school for the families in the community hungry for a high quality education opportunity. Her idea was novel and brilliant—the kids would be given dance instruction as their P.E. class every day, using the incredible teaching staff of the highly regarded everybody dance! program.

Since its inception, Liza’s program has served the kids attending Camino Nuevo Charter School with her after-school classes.  She became friends with the school’s founders, education activists Paul Cummins and Philip Lance, and approached them with her idea for a new school. Both was wildly enthusiastic and encouraged her to apply for a charter.

The Los Angeles Unified School District was less enthusiastic, pointing to Liza’s lack of a track record. “And then there was the dance thing,” notes Liza who knew she was promoting an innovation that the District didn’t quite get. This was before studies have demonstrated that one way in which children learn is kinesthetically—through movement. The District was skeptical, but Liza never shies away from a challenge. “When you say ‘No’ to me, I hear ‘Maybe’,” she says with a touch of pride.

Liza went into recruiting mode again, attracting a superb cadre of teachers, administrators, and donors to support the school. “Our program brings out the best in people,” she says. “They rise to the occasion.”  

The Gabriella Charter School (GCS) opened in 2005 with a rigorous, standards-based curriculum. Right from the start, GCS closed the “achievement gap” between its low-income, largely Hispanic and Korean students and their more socioeconomically advantaged peers in Los Angeles. The students put up Academic Performance Index (API) scores consistently well above the state target of 800. And the parents—they too are thrilled with their children’s academic achievement, the availability of the qualified staff, and the positive school culture.

This K-5 charter school’s stellar track record caught the attention of the formerly skeptical L.A. School District. Liza quietly relished the irony when the District asked her to expand GCS encompass a middle school and co-locate with the existing Logan school on its campus in Echo Park. The transition was challenging, but GCS managed to retain almost all its former students while expanding its enrollment by 100%.

What I Did For Love

It gives Liza great satisfaction to see her daughter’s name on the shirts of kids coming to school, eager to learn and eager to dance. And she is extremely proud that GCS’ ratings show that students improve their academic learning when they have the self-confidence and discipline that dance training provides.

Gabri’s love of dance isn’t the only inspiration for her mother’s tireless efforts to give less fortunate kids the gift of joyous movement. It is also Gabri’s inherent kindness that drives Liza to make a lasting, positive impact on the lives of these underserved kids. It is this love for all our children that is Gabri’s enduring legacy.

“Gabri would laugh,” says Liza. “She would have loved to be a teacher.”

So back to answering the question: Is it wise to change lanes when dealing with a crisis?

After a broadside collision—whether physical or metaphorical—you may need time to recover from the shock. It may not be a good idea to add yet another disruption to your life, just at the point you are most vulnerable.

But changing lanes can be a way to gain a fresh perspective. Liza not only confronted her ill fortune, but was able to reinvent herself at the same time. She developed a passion for arts-based education as a way to leave a legacy in her daughter’s memory. The process allowed her to find new meaning in her life and to start the healing process.

If you are hurting, take time to heal but don’t cut yourself off from the mysterious workings of universe. There is great value in getting reengaged and not waiting around for something to fall in your lap. Things start to happen for you when your eyes and ears are open. 

If you have a story to share with our readers, please send it to us in the comment box below.

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