Elizabeth Souza began taking Hula lessons at the age of 4. By age 6, she was studying under Napua and Napua’s protégée, Judy Bass. Over the next several years, she continued her studies, which included classes in ballet, jazz, modern, and more significantly Tahitian dance under the tutelage of Margery Hannigan and Hula with her primary Polynesian dance mentor (Kumu Hula), Ilima Montgomery. She appeared on stage in a production of The King and I, several commercials and print ads, and had a spot on the television program The Sunshine Celebration Company. She was a principle dancer at The Tikis in Monterey Park for seven years, for Les Polynesia Dance Company, and The Seven Seas in Hollywood. She taught at Georgia McManus’ studio in Long Beach and had a private studio of her own.
It when then that Elizabeth began to take an interest in bellydance. She studied under Allegra, Cella, Caroleena Epstein, and Janea Drummond (who were all students of MaShuga, which Elizabeth later studied under). She worked as a bellydancer in a variety of restaurants throughout San Jose and Santa Cruz and even delivered “belly grams.” She and her sister founded Raks Ohana, fusing Polynesian and bellydance, teaching and performing at events such as the Cairo Carnival and Bedouin Bazaar. Elizabeth has taken workshops from numerous teachers, from Egypt and many of the well known American teachers, Judeen, Jill Parker, Ansuya, Rachel Brice, Alexandra King, Jillna, etc. More recently, she began studying Tribal Belly dance under Ayse Cerami in 2003 and has been a member of all her troupes Kamala Varna, Sundara Varna, and currently She’ enedra and the Sisterhood Dance Collective.

Tsingani is super excited about Tribal Ford!! We hope you all like our workshops!! We are striving to make them great!