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Naomi Eshoo
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Naomi Eshoo began learning Armenian Folk dance when she was eight and joined her first dance troupe with John and Helen Bilezikjian at eleven, but her love for the music and dances began even earlier. Before she could read, her father (the late Dan Eshoo Sr.) drew a smiley face on her favorite Armenian cassette so she could find and play it whenever she wanted.
Naomi has taught at the Mendocino Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp since 2011 and particularly enjoys the “picnic” dances because of the feeling of unification they create among the dancers and the ability to dance with (reckless) abandon. She attributes her love for the dances to the memories with her father and to her teachers Tom Bozigian, Barbara Chookasian, John and Helen Bilezikjian, and Mike Solakian.