Eliza’s dance exposure started at an early age with the standard little girl ballet classes.  After seeing the movie Ice Castles, she joined the figure skating craze and started free style and ice dance lessons, continuing to train and compete throughout her junior years .  It proved to be an excellent foundation for belly dance by way of strength training, muscle control, musical interpretation, and an emphasis on grace, fluidity, and poise in performance.

Eliza first discovered belly dance at a Fat Chance Belly Dance performance in San Francisco in 1998.   Enthralled by the fluidity and intensity of the dancers, she started taking classes in Chicago with Read My Hips director Stephanie Barto and co-director Heather Stants.  She was a principal dancer with Read My Hips from 1999 to 2004.  In 2005 she co-founded Jezebelly Tribal Belly Dance which continues in the tradition of improvisational (ITS) belly dance.

In 2006 she joined the teaching staff at Arabesque Studios in Chicago where she offers instruction to intermediate and advanced level students in Improvisational Tribal Style (ITS) and Tribal Fusion Belly Dance.  Her advanced level students make up her apprentice troupe BellyRing.

In 2009 Eliza began performing as a solo artist.  After a short time as a soloist, Eliza won People’s Choice and Second Place awards at the 2009 Maqam Midwest Belly Dance Challenge.  With an intense interest to develop her technical and interpretive dance skills, she has taken advanced and teacher level intensive workshops with some of the top fusion dancers and instructors including Zoe Jakes, Mardi Love, Rachel Brice, Deb Rubin, Mira Betz, as well as her mentor, Heather Stants.

Eliza enjoys being a part of the tribal belly dance community and is involved in local and regional events, performances and workshops in her quest to influence and be influenced by the broader belly dance community.