Influenced by her mother’s passion for dance, Estelle Shao has made dance a lifestyle and a way of expressing a woman’s beauty.

After practicing ballet for 7 years, Estelle fell in love with belly dance in the summer of 2005 when she began classes led by a half-Arabian, half-Italian belly dancer. Captivated by this dance style, Estelle decided to relinquish her media career and to donate all her talent and passion to promote the art of belly dance in mainland China.

Estelle visited Egypt in both 2006 and 2007, where she was tutored by Nagwa Fouad, Raqia Hassan, Tamalyn Dallal, Mona el Saeid, Rhanda Kamel, Suhaila Salimpour, and Zaza, among others.

Estelle was the first person to bring such internationally renowned belly dancers from the United States to mainland China as Kaeshi Chai, Tamalyn Dallal and Amar Gamal. As a consequence of these visits belly dance has become a significant trend in Shanghai.

Together with two other partners and her mother, Estelle founded Shanghai’s only belly dance school, the Isis Club, which has already trained over 1,000 dancers over the last two years.

Estelle has made appearances at the Shanghai International Festival as well as at launch events for such premium brands as Bailey’s and Porsche.