Mercedes took one WERQ®  class and knew immediately she'd found her favorite way to live fit and experience joy. She promptly got certified as an instructor in 2016 and has been teaching weekly classes in the Chicagoland area ever since, both in dance studio and athletic club environments. Mercedes regularly joins the WERQ community on charity WERQ and other events and even got down with team WERQ during a Harlem Globetrotters game. In addition to being a certified WERQaholic, Mercedes is a certified Feldenkrais Method Practitioner, martial artist, and brain-body health hobbyist. She has a degree in acting from Northwestern University and works in development at Steppenwolf Theatre. Mercedes has two flippin' awesome kids, Jack and Ruby, and a wonderful husband, filmmaker and actor Sean Patrick Leonard.

"I am THRILLED to be joining the team at SOURCE and bringing WERQ to this community. I want to be your partner in having a blast, getting results, and experiencing new heights of confidence. ALL are welcome to WERQ: the format is designed to help you succeed and each song is fantastically choreographed to make the class easy enough to follow with a grin, hard enough to make a play for your power, and saucy enough to draw out your sweaxy. The moves are as varied as the music and both experienced and non-experienced dancers will love on this class."  

Check out Sarah’s Instagram for inspiration!

The song that gets me moving every time….

Lose Yourself by Eminem still moves my energy. But my most recent anthem is Freedom by Dorothy, featuring Angel Haze

Dream vacation spot….

the Mediterranean, Greece specifically. I would love to explore ancient Greece and spend a solid month on a coastal cliff.

Favorite workout move….

Apparently I need to see "Perfect" from 1985 but I'm gonna approach this like an actor and say the "The Matrix," while not a workout movie, has some of the coolest stunts and well-done fights. It would have been the BOMB to train for. 

In ten years, I see myself….

at the next level top of my game.