Gladys Santiago-Vazquez

Gladys (aka “TEAM IGNITE”) was born and raised in the Chicago, and began dancing when she was a very little girl. She has trained in latin dance, ballet, jazz, modern, hip-hop, and many other styles. She has also trained/taught under the direction of Nilda Pauley, from the Lasting Impressions Dance company for over 5 years. She was cheer, poms captain and lead choreographer at her high school which continued to fuel her love of dance. She completed her BA in Computer Information Systems with an emphasis on Interactive Multimedia from Devry University and Columbia College Chicago.  

Gladys also is head over hells for Fitness! She started her love by trying out a Zumba class at the Glenview Park Center on a whim and basically never looked back. Instantly hooked she started to pursue other programs to fuel her love of dance. She is a certified WERQ Instructor and Zumba Fitness Professional for the Lustbader Center in Northbrook. Gladys teaches at the Marvin Lustbader Center and Niles Family Fitness with her team mate Ilaria Mocciaco who together they are known as “Team IGnite”.

GROOV3, how do I begin to articulate in words how I feel about GROOV3. There are really no words that can do it justice quite frankly. Finally, we have a program that not only fuels the LOVE of dance but does it in an easy to follow and thoughtful way. The feeling you receive from taking a GROOV3 class is unmatched by any other program on the market today and becoming an instructor is no walk in the part. You will WORK for it and be quite proud of what you accomplished when and/if you get to the other side. It’s not just a groove thing - IT’S A GROOV3 THANG.