Natalia Eristavi

(she/her)

San Diego, USA

She places a lot of value on the honesty in dancing such as true engagement to music and the finessed dynamics of partner connection and communication. Aesthetically, these values translate to a mixture of LA and Hollywood style Lindy Hop with rhythmic texturing. Natalia constantly practices her craft to ensure consistent growth and refinement.

Natalia began Swing dancing in 2010 at the age of 17 at Atomic Ballroom, Irvine California. Starting with Lindy Hop and Balboa, she immediately fell in love with the music and community culture.

She grew up dancing under the wings of accomplished and respected Lindy Hop and Balboa dancers such as Justin Zillman, Augie Freeman, Laura Keat, Jeremy Otth, Nick Williams and James Bianco as well as took creative inspiration from the original California Swing dancers such as Jewel McGowan, Dean Collins, Freda Angela Wyckoff, Sandy Chavez, George Christopherson, Willie Desatoff and Maxie Dorf.

She enjoys dancing with everyone no matter what their level or status as she believes that this encourages a healthy and inclusive dance community. This perspective is also something she believes directly contributed to her making finals in competitions as it challenged her to make social dancing comfortable and successful with anyone she was paired with. She does her best to create an atmosphere of inclusivity with her students and dance partners, be it social or competitive. 

Natalia places a lot of importance on maintaining historical integrity in the Swing Dances she works with even while pushing creative boundaries. She believes in learning from the generations prior to her own and absorbing as much knowledge from the old time dancers as possible so that the integrity of Swing dancing may be passed through her as well as the generations that follow. She hopes that her teaching and performing plays a small part

in accomplishing this.

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