Our Coaches

Natalie Zapater and Robert Chapman

Natalie Zapater:

Natalie has started dancing at the age of three. Starting with tap and ballet, she later took on old time or sequence dancing and disco, as well as latin and ballroom. She took medals in all of these dance styles, before she then decided to join a formation team.

After competing in Blackpool with the formation team, she decided she wanted to compete with a partner. Knowing this would be a big commitment, she gave up all other styles of dancing and from then on only trained in latin and ballroom.

Her first partner was based in Bristol, however she had to split with him due to height difference and found a different partner in Manchester. Practicing Thursdays to Saturdays, she competed – and won – weekly and became 2^nd in the country. From there on she has competed ever since, winning many titles and making finals of many others. Her biggest success was to dance for the English team on an international level.

At the age of only 17 she moved to Italy, where she had found a new partner. The competitions took her all over Europe and America, always with brilliant results. From there she moved to Spain to help her teaching experience and again to further her competing career in Spanish titles.

Due to circumstances out of her control, she moved back to the UK in 2005, where she took her teaching exams to become a professional.

She then met with Rob and they decided to dance together as their ambitions and dreams took them to the same place. Together, they opened their own dance school, Natalies life time dream, worked on cruise ships and, of course the most rewarding part of their career together, joined the Latin and Ballroom society of the University of Warwick as teachers.

Robert Chapman:

Rob is an Associate member of the United Kingdom Alliance of dance teachers, and has been dancing since 1992.

At Juvenile and Junior level Rob won both regional and national honors, as well as being a finalist at “Champions of Tomorrow”, “Stars of the Future” and the UK Closed Championships. As the introduction of EADA Charts emerged, Rob was ranked 4th in the 10-dance standings.

The move from Junior to Amateur also saw Rob move from Southampton to Birmingham, where he continued his success winning the Welsh Championships back to back with a new partner.

After many years of competing, Rob turned his attention to demonstrating and teaching. This led him to Virginia Beach in the USA as a guest instructor and lecturer, followed by a cruising contract taking him to dozens of countries.

Rob took up his teaching post with Warwick University in 2005, and in 2009 he formed Rialto Dance Academy with Natalie.