11 AM News
December 19, 2001
KELLY: For many children, dance lessons are
a part of childhood along with music
lessons and trips to the zoo, but some children cannot afford the extras, and that's
where a program called "everybody dance!" comes in. Our guest today is Liza
Bercovici, who founded the group, and Liza, thanks so much for being here
LIZA: Thank you.
KELLY: I know that the program, its genesis, is based on a really terrible tragedy.
Tell me about that.
LIZA: I lost my daughter, Gabriella, when she was 13 1/2...
KELLY: We have some pictures of her here.
LIZA: Yes, thank you. We were on a family bicycling vacation in Grand Teton
National Park and she was hit by a car while riding her bike, and after she died...I had
been a practicing lawyer...I just did not feel like going on practicing law. A friend
sent me a series of articles that had run in the Los Angeles Times about a dance
program in Santa Ana that had been started by a former nun for underprivileged
children in that neighborhood, in that community, and I began to wonder if something
similar could be done in Los Angeles. My daughter and been a wonderful dancer, and
dance had done a lot of good for her and I just thought it might be some way of
perpetuating her memory and salvaging my own life actually. So, as it happened, a
friend of mine, who was actually a former client, was a developer and had taken a
beautiful old historic building in Los Angeles, the former Sheraton Town House Hotel
and converted it into a really model low income housing project and I'd sometimes
visit him there because the courthouse is right across the street. I noticed that the
old banquet hall of the hotel, which is a beautiful room, was basically unused
because it was now a low income housing project, and so I asked him whether or not
it would be possible to start a community dance program in that location. It
happened to be a community...it's the Wilshire Center area of Los Angeles just a little
bit west of downtown...where there's a huge number of kids - it's a very densely
populated area.
KELLY: We're showing right now some video tape of what has come from this idea.
It's just a terrific opportunity for kids who otherwise wouldn't have it. Tell me, there's
hundreds of children who've now become involved with this.
LIZA: Yes, it's just mushroomed out of all proportion. I cannot explain it myself,
except that a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into making it happen. I
always end up getting the credit, but the fact is, it was a group effort which started
with 12 classes a week back in May of 2000 with, I think, 50 kids. By September, we
were up to 33 classes a week.
KELLY: Wow.
LIZA: We're up to 72 classes a week in two locations and we have 750 kids now. It's
great.
KELLY: That is great. Tell me, these are still pictures of some of the kids who take
part in the program. Now, students have to be a certain age to begin?
LIZA: Well. they have to be 4 years of age, and if they're 4, they start in our
Saturday program in pre ballet normally, or creative dance, but most of the kids you
see there are between 7 and 12 years old. Right there, they're dancing at the
University of Southern California.
KELLY: Okay, wow.
LIZA: Yes, they were invited to perform there.
KELLY: That's terrific. And boys, I notice. Boys are involved as well?
LIZA: Yes, a lot of boys. My own son who's 10 years old has been dancing there for
a year and half. It's been great for him.
KELLY: Tell us quickly, if people want to get involved in the program, whether it's
getting their own children involved or they want to donate time, how can they do
that?
LIZA: Thanks for asking...they can check our web site at www.everybodydance.org.
They can give us a telephone call at 213–/365–0065. That would probably be the
best ways to reach us.
KELLY: I think you're daughter would be very proud of what you've done, and we
think it's absolutely amazing what you've done in such a short time.
LIZA: Thank you.
KELLY: Liza, thanks for being our guest today.
LIZA: Thanks for having me.
--Kelly Mack (NBC Reporter)
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