August Spree Gunderson

I have been a dance instructor for more than 15 years, having always been passionate about dance.  In 1994 I began working with an organization that helped to rehabilitate troubled youth using dance, drama, music, and art programs.  I stayed with this organization full-time for 10 years.  My job was to create the international dance program, and then train leaders to run it.  The organization had one base of operations in the suburbs of Chicago, one in Iowa, and one in Jerusalem, Israel.  In addition to that, I traveled all over the world implementing our programs into other organizations, including Europe, Africa, South America, and Central America.  I trained leaders to take my place and stepped away from the program to spend time with my three small beautiful children.  In that time I was also diagnosed with cancer.  After being declared cancer-free, I went back to school to become a licensed massage therapist and began working as a therapist and volunteering with cancer organizations doing massage as well as dance.  I was also coaching a competition-level junior high team in hip hop at that time. 

It was discovered by my boss that I had an extensive dance background and I was asked to begin subbing for dance-based cardio classes at Lifetime Fitness where I was working as a massage therapist.  My department head approached me and said that fitness and dance seemed like a good fit for me and suggested I become ACE certified in order to grow my career with fitness.  Since then, teaching group fitness classes has become such a strong passion of mine and the classes I teach have grown incredibly.  People enjoy the workout (800-1,000 calorie burn in one hour), but they also enjoy the experience.  My slogan is: Transform Yourself, and in my classes people feel like they aren't working out, they are just having fun in body and in spirit, and they are being entertained and learning new things and pushing themselves - and in the end, they see the transformation!  Any Zumba-friendly environment will LOVE the Street Vybe classes that I teach! 

 www.newvybe.com

I began to have people approach me about learning to teach these classes, and in March I became an ACE educator and now offer CECs for Street Vybe training.

Being able to teach and travel has always been my passion, and I am excited to discover this company.  My department head at Lifetime Fitness (Bloomingdale, IL) recommended this to me (Bethany Fawkes) as she is also a member of FitBodies. 

CEC provider for Street Vybe cardio training.