The Story
About Erika
An Angeleno Native
Erika was born in Los Angeles, California. Being from a mixed Latino/Native American family and raised among Angeleno/Hollywood culture, she naturally developed a passion for the performing arts. All throughout school, Erika was a participant in choir, theater, and dance.
She was first introduced to Middle Eastern dance upon graduating high school. Erika’s mother, a visual artist who’s always shared and encouraged her daughter’s love for dance, discovered a belly dance class being offered at a local college. They took it together, and that experience would play a bigger role later in her life.
University Grad
Erika then left home to attend the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where her desire to learn about human culture and evolution led her to study Anthropology and Urban Planning. She also joined the university’s competitive ballroom dance team for the duration of her studies.
In 2008, Erika graduated from UCSD with a B.A. in Anthropology and moved back to Los Angeles. Upon returning, Erika faced a poor job market and found difficulty finding work relevant to her degree. She turned to bartending, modeling, and doing background for TV shows and music videos for work.
Rediscovery
In 2010, Erika rediscovered belly dancing when musician/singer David Longoria hired her to learn oriental choreography for his live concert “Baila!”. Following the concert, she trained briefly with the Zahira Dancers, a belly dance company. However, financial stress forced her to eventually break from the dance and entertainment industry.
In 2012, Erika networked and found an opportunity to use her degree when she was hired to work for Chattel, Inc., a historic architecture preservation consulting firm. Though the job was ideal in many ways, Erika grew stressed and restless in the office environment, so she began picking up part-time work in arts and entertainment again. During this time, she joined the Lotus Dancers, a belly dance company. She worked with Lotus in the evenings for about two years while simultaneously continuing to work at Chattel during the daytime.
Loving Life
In 2014, Erika felt it was time to resign from both the consulting firm and the dance company. She had boldly decided to pursue and grow her career as a solo professional belly dance artist. The rest is history!
In all the days since she made it her goal to belly dance around the world, she has been able to say with great pride that she is happily living her dream.
