Gabriella Charter Schools

Our Mission

We join academic rigor with the creativity of dance to engage the hearts and minds of young people in underserved communities, empowering them to excel both inside and outside the classroom.

It Started with a Dance Program

Gabriella Charter Schools were born out of the success of an after-school dance program in inner-city Los Angeles. Liza Bercovici founded the after-school program, everybody dance! (now called Everybody Dance LA!), in memory of her daughter Gabriella (Gabri), who passed away at the age of 13. 

Gabri

Gabri loved to dance, so everybody dance!​​​​​​​ provided free or low-cost dance classes to children in the under-resourced communities west of downtown Los Angeles. 

Thanks to our high expectations, our dance program flourished and grew rapidly.

Demand for a School

Within a few years, inspired by its success and in response to parent demand, Gabriella Charter School 1 ("GCS 1") was opened in 2005. 

GCS 1 opened with just 100 students, K-3, in an affordable housing complex in Pico-Union. 

Growth and Success

In 2008, impressed by our strong test scores and parental support, Los Angeles Unified invited us to relocate to Echo Park and agreed that GCS could triple its enrollment, add a middle school, and remain at its new site long-term. 

In addition, the District built us state-of-the-art dance studios so that all GCS students could continue to take daily dance classes. 

As dance proficiency improved, our recitals got better and the venues bigger and more professional. Academic growth also rose, thanks to a dedicated staff and a culture that fostered high expectations and nurtured a caring community and strong school values.

Over time, GCS 1 grew to an enrollment of 475. GCS students became GCS alums, matriculating to high school and then college. 

Opening our Second School

In 2017, Gabriella Charter 2 (“GCS 2”) opened in Historic South Central. GCS 2 now serves approximately 340 students, TK-6.   

We are proud to say that the dance program created 21 years ago in memory of a little girl who loved to dance has grown into two unique, high-performing dance-infused public charter schools with over 750 students.