Estelle Bonnaire

Contact: estelle.bonnaire@gmail.com
Estelle began her dance journey at age 13 when she discovered Lindy Hop. Hooked from
her first swivels, swing dancing quickly became her central passion accompanied by her second
passion, travelling. At 18, she embarked across the world to learn as much about the dance as
possible, eventually discovering her favorite dance, West Coast Swing. It melds all her favorite
elements—smoothness, grace, and technique—with her love of swing.
In 2011, she moved to Montreal for two years to train professionally as a dancer and
dance teacher while developing her technique and pedagogy amongst the best of the community.
All the while, she travelled to compete and became the first French All-star.
In november 2018, she competed at The Open, category Classic, with Thibault Ramirez,
and placed 6th, working closely in collaboration with Kyle Redd and Sarah Van Drake, and
coached by Maxence Martin and Torri Zzaoui.
Estelle now lives in the Bay Area in California, competing, teaching, judging, and head judging
at WSDC events while she still travels to Europe.
She teaches with a myriad of partners as well as collaborates with many of her peers.
Moreover, she provides judges training during weekends centrally focused on helping the
community grow and thrive as best she can.
Her responsibilities also included 3 years of residing on the WSDC (World Swing Dance
Council) board of directors in addition to acting as the WSDC European liaison.
She continues to travel the world, sharing her passion with everyone she meets. Her
joyful personality, easy-going and open attitude, and skillful reduction of hard ideas to easily
understandable concepts make her a renowned teacher. These qualities make her workshops and
classes leave her students with greater confidence and understanding than when they began.
–