Kendall Tucker (She/Her)– Wellness Coordinator, Yoga + Fitness Coordinator
Kendall grew up playing various sports with a passion for fitness. She continued advancing her athletic abilities throughout her life and finishing her Volleyball Career in college at University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. While playing sports, she focused on keeping her body stretched and relaxed in order to play at a high level. Her new found passion for Yoga and Fitness has grown from this self physical awareness as she completes her 200 Hour Yoga Certification. Additionally she is working to become certified in future skills within Fitness such as Step Classes, Ariel Gymnastics, and more! She loves helping her students delve deeper into the mental and physical practice of yoga, while educating them on basic life tools for their own personal well-being.
As the Morgan Park Sports Center Wellness Coordinator and class teacher, she wants to ensure that the classes and workshops here are created and designed specifically for the needs of the community for people to grow stronger and improve their lives. She hopes to create a place where this community can be brought together by the love of not just fitness, but wellness as she once did growing up around sports. She wants to maintain a space where people can slow down, take a few breaths, and work on cultivating their best self and improve their self gratification.
Isis Billups – Yoga Instructor
Lynda Piatt (She/Her)– Dance Instructor
Lynda has had a total of 18 years of dance training. She has experience in ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary, and musical theater! At Morgan Park Fitness Center, she currently teaches all ages of ballet and jazz. She will be starting our first session of Musical Theater starting in the fall! Still after having 9 years of teaching experience, She is excited to continue improving herself and train the next generation of skilled dancers! Lynda was nominated and selected as the Teacher of the Year, 2019 from Intrigue Dance.
Alicia Eliza Bridges (She/They)- Dance Instructor
Sharon Dorsey- Zumba Fitness Instructor
Sharon started Zumba eight years ago. In March of 2017 she decided to take the certification training to instruct Zumba fitness classes. She is very happy to this day with that decision. Coupled with healthy eating habits, Zumba fitness classes can change your life. Decide today to check out her upbeat and sweat-filled Zumba classes!
Lalita Vayavananda- Yoga Instructor
In 2016, Lalita received her YTT-200hr certification at Green Tree Yoga & Meditation (now known as The Tree South LA) in California. She has since studied Yoga Therapy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and completed certifications in trauma informed yoga, yoga for all bodies/ accessible yoga, pre/ postnatal yoga, meditation and sound healing. She incorporates all these elements in her classes to keep them engaging, effective and safe. She has been a practitioner of yoga since 2008 and initially began for the fitness aspect, but naturally her discipline became a healing tool to overcome barriers and trauma with the realization that physicality is a mere fragment of what yoga truly encompasses. Additionally, Lalita is a doula currently studying maternal child healthcare as well as environmental literacy and urban farming.
Darcelle Murray- Dance Instructor
Growing up from my dance career I have been dancing since the age of 3 and did the intensive training when I was 4. I had done jazz, tap, modern, hip-hop, and West African, but what I am best at is ballet. Plus, I started en Pointe at the age of 13. I studied at the following dance schools; Stairway of The Stars, CSU Dance Team, FieldCrest School of Performing Arts, Russell Tablet Dance Studio, Homer Bryant Ballet and The Hyde Park School of Ballet. I love to teaching dance to people from any different age. In the past I had use to work as a Assistant Pom Pom/Dance Coach to award winning youth group called Chicago Bear-ette Team and worked with Elmhurst Park District Dance teaching Ballet II in the Spring 2019 with a 2 years CPR Certified.
Stay tuned for more instructor information!