Kendra Hyson is a native Washingtonian who began her dance experience at the age of three. She studied traditional jazz, tap, Cecchetti method ballet, pompon and production with Linda Natoli School of Dance in Oxon Hill and Clinton, MD until high school. At Elizabeth Seton High School (ESHS), she began cheerleading/dance team and learned hip hop through current hip hop music videos and master classes held by Giovanni Scott a native New Yorker who was also a student at ESHS (Giovanni was trained by the legendary Rosie Perez and Jennifer Lopez – Fly Girl dancers and choreographers from the television series, In Living Color).

At the age of 9, her extensive choreography career began in her den at home to her mother’s oldies 45 records. Her captivating talent was finally recognized when she was elected as the president of ESHS Dance Club for two consecutive years.

While in attendance at West Virginia University for a bachelor of science in psychology, she sharpened her dance technique with jazz, modern and tap dance courses. She also was president of the Mountain Jazz Dance Club and choreographer. Thereafter, for the remainder of her time there in college, she performed with Mountain Jazz Dance Company, WVU Ballet Ensemble, WVU African (Ghanaian) Dance Troupe simultaneously. Kendra’s path of discovering the importance of wellness through using dance for fitness, led her to teaching aerobics in 2003, however, she could not stop using the outstanding dance training and technique that she was taught growing up. She instructed her aerobics classes at a “performer onstage” level of production and eventually became dissatisfied with how aerobics doesn’t allow much room for that mark of creativity. She began constructing her own fitness programs in 2005 after realizing the licensed formats she taught was really her own hard work, creativity, judgment and ingenuity.

Carrithyms! dance program was initially created in 2008 as a Caribbean based specialty class on the schedule at her facility with marked success. The cheesy fad-like popularity of the licensed program she already was in drove her in August 2010 to abandon all association with it and focus upon fostering the growth of her Carrithyms! program which is purely more authentic to world culture and highlights technically based dance without judgment. The National Aerobics and Fitness Trainers Association (NAFTA) and Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) have sponsored her program and predict it to be the biggest thing in fitness. She is currently holding workshops to certify instructors to be licensed in her Carrithyms! dance program.

Kendra possesses nine fitness certifications: Penn Foster Fitness and Nutrition diploma; from AFAA: Primary Group Exercise, Indoor Cycling, Aqua Fitness, Personal Training, Yoga; from Les Mills: Body Pump and Body Jam. Local celebrities, professionals and people of all demographics enjoy Kendra’s classes for her edgy yet fun approach to everything she instructs be it live in class or live through her internet TV channel, AlterNatives Fitness Live.

About Carrithyms! and AlterNatives Fitness
AlterNatives Fitness came into existence in 2006 as Kendra’s flagship fitness company
offering alternatives to the basic and mediocre way of getting fit. A true believer in being
versatile, she comes to your home to train you or holds small group trainings with family
and friends be it a personal training session or a great specialty party with belly dance,
hip hop, Carrithyms! and more to offer as theme choices for your “out of gym” fitness
soirée. Additionally through AlterNatives Fitness she has held many “for donation” classes as fundraisers for worthy causes such as homelessness in Southern Maryland, Relay for Life, March of Dimes and awareness for such causes as domestic violence, breast cancer, fire safety, AIDS and heart disease. Through her fundraising she has not only touched her local communities but also inspired many of those for whom she is conducting the fundraisers to be a part of her classes on a regular basis.