TPDA Instructors
Mallory Pyeatt
Mallory began dancing at the age of three. She took dance at Robin’s School of Dance where she was trained in ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, cheerleading, tumbling and baton. She has competed in numerous regional and national dance competitions throughout the southeast. She has also attended workshops from Hollywood Vibe, Showstoppers, and Applause. She has won numerous competitions and has been awarded the Kids Artistic Dance Revue’s KAR Kid award three times with an invitation to dance in New York City. She was a member of the Theodore High School dance team where she served as captain. She was also an all-star cheerleader at Flip Zone Athletics where she competed at many regional and national competitions. She has cheered for Hankins Middle School, Theodore High school and Faulkner State Community College. She was a 6 time UCA All-Star cheerleader. She cheered in the Thanksgiving Day parade in Disney World and the Capitol One Bowl in Orlando. She is a national title holder for college cheerleading. She taught cheerleading and special needs cheerleading at Premier Athletics in Auburn and dance at Make Your Move Performing Arts in Auburn, Alabama She graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Speech Pathology. Mallory is the Speech Pathologist for all pre-schools in the Spring Hill area. She is the Hankins Middle School cheerleading coach . She is currently working on her masters degree at the University of South Alabama . Mallory is married to Joshua Pyeatt and they have a daughter, Tinleigh Kate and a son Brexton.
Carly Wilson
Carly Brunson has been dancing since the age of 3. She has trained at many different studios in the Mobile area. She graduated from Alma Bryant in 2011 where she was a part of the Kickin’ Cane dance team for four years and was chosen as Dance Senior Superlative her senior year. She taught dance for Robinson’s School of dance for three years while in High School as well as training with Robinson’s for four years. She also was a part of the University of Southern Mississippi’s dance team, the Dixie Darlings. Carly began teaching at TPDA in 2013. She quickly became one of the competition teachers. She has choreographed numerous dances that have won overalls, special judges awards and invitations to nationals throughout the southeast. She has attended continuing education workshops through the dance department at the University of Southern Mississippi. Mrs. Carly married Mrs. Stephanie’s son, Huntley Wilson in November of 2016 and they have a son, Lukas and a daughter, Berkleigh.
Emilee Davis
Miss Emilee began her dance training at Kelly’s Dance Academy at the age of three. She took jazz and tap classes. She then went to Planet Gymnastics and took classes in all –around gymnastics. At the age of seven she began taking classes at Robin’s School of Dance where she took, tap, jazz, ballet, clogging, baton, cheerleading and Polynesian. At the age of thirteen she went to Robinson’s School of dance to train. She then went to The Dance Zone at Flip Zone Athletics and trained. Emilee has been assisting classes for Turning Pointe Dance Academy since it’s first day of business in 2009. Emilee has a son, Fisher and is expecting a new baby boy in October. This is Ms. Emilee’s thirteenth year with TPDA.
Shawnna Wells Garner
Shawnna began twirling when she was a seventh grader at Alba Middle School. She taught herself until she decided to try out for the “Twirling Canes” at Alma Bryant High School. She was under the direction of Neecy LaForce while at Bryant High and she serves as the captain her Senior year. She also twirled with Alabama Baton Corporation and she attended many baton camps across the southeastern United States. During the summer, she would teach baton classes and camps. She received her bachelors in the sciences of nursing from the University of Alabama in December 2006 and she has her advance practice license as an acute care nurse practioner. She is the mother of four dancers: Kayleigh, Kinsley, Kennedie and Kolbi..This is Mrs. Shawnna’s eleventh year with TPDA.
Stepheny Ready
Mrs. Stepheny started dancing at the age of three at Kelly’s Dance Academy. At the age of five, Stepheny discovered the fast paced world of clogging with Sherry Cook at One Step Ahead Cloggers in Mobile. Throughout the following thirteen years the team won many team competitions, taking home first place and first place overall titles. The skills Stepheny took with her enables her to win other competitions such as 4-H talent and school talent shows. She continued clogging with Sherry’s daughters into adulthood. She graduated from Alma Bryant High School were she was a Kickin’ Cane dancer for 4 years and an officer and achieved Dance Superlative her senior year. She took lessons at Robinson’s School of Dance and was a dance assistant teacher for two years. She loves dance of all kinds and is excited for the opportunity to share her love of dance with the TPDA family. She has two daughters, Tanner and Taylor.
Kendra Isenhower
Mrs. Kendra began dancing at he age of three at Debbie’s School of Dance where she studied jazz, tap, ballet and gymnastics. At the age of ten Kendra began to study jazz, hip hop, lyrical, ballet, cheerleading and tumbling at Robin’s School of Dance. She has competed in several regional and national competitions throughout the southeast. She has also attended workshops from Showstoppers, Applause, Hollywood Vibe and Universal Cheerleading Association. Kendra was a member of the Hankins Middle School and Theodore High School cheerleading squads. Kendra was named UCA All-Star Cheerleader for five years and performed in Disney World. She has choreographed cheer routines for TAA ball park. Kendra is a 2007 graduate of Theodore High School. Kendra received a softball scholarship to Faulkner State Community College. She graduated from the University of South Alabama in December of 2010 with a degree in Elementary Education. Kendra also received her masters degree in Elementary Education from the University of South Alabama.She recently graduated with am educational specialist degree in teacher leadership from the University of South Alabama. She is currently a teacher at Pearl Haskew Elementary. Kendra is married to JH Isenhower and has three children, Adaleigh, Harlee and Weslee.
Abbie Bouler
Mrs. Abbie started dance training at Robin’s School of Dance at the age of 2. She took a variety of classes such as ballet, jazz and tap. She moved with Mrs. Stephanie to TPDA where she has been since 2009. Mrs. Abbie competed with TPDA for ten years and won numerous awards and special judges recognition. She was a part of the ballet company at Dunbar Magnet for three years. Mrs. Abbie danced with TPDA in Walt Disney World in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. She has had the opportunity to assist at TPDA since 2014 and is now on her third year as an instructor. Mrs. Abbie is the 2018 TPDA Jody & Kathy Grice Memorial Scholarship recipient. Mrs. Abbie is majoring in education at the University Of Mobile.
Layna Estes
Miss Layna has been dancing since she was 2 years old. She began with Mrs. Stephanie at Robin’s School of dance and moved to TPDA. Miss Layna has studied tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, contemporary, hip hop, tumbling, and clogging. She has competed since she was 4 years old and has won numerous awards, scholarships and special judges awards for dance. She has assisted dance classes at TPDA for several years and will teaching her own classes this season. Miss Layna is also the 2019 TPDA Jody & Kathy Grice Memorial Scholarship recipient.
Brianna Griffin
Miss Brianna danced for ten years. She attended Dunbar Magnet School where she was on the Synergy Ballet Company team. She danced at TPDA for all four years of high school She attended Davidson High School where she danced on the Color Guard team. She graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in education. While at Southern Miss, she danced as a Dixie Darling. She is currently a physical education teacher and cheerleading coach at Grand Bay Middle School. Mrs. Brianna has always had a passion for the art of dance and very excited to share this love to all the dancers at TPDA.
Jolee White
Miss Jolee and her sisters have been dancing since she 4 years old. She has always looked up to her older sister that taught dance. Her sister is what inspired her to want to teach dance as well. Miss Jolee danced at TPDA where she was on the competition team and a student assistant. She was a Kickin’ Cane dancer at Alma Bryant High School. .After graduation she attended Pearl River Community College where she danced on a full scholarship as a String of Pearls dancer. Miss Jolee taught dance at a local studio in Louisiana After graduating from PRCC she returned home and knew she wanted to come home to TPDA!
Laura Naman
Miss Laura has been a cheerleader her whole life. She started by tumbling at Flip Zone at the age of 5 and progressing to competitive cheer at the age of 7. Along with competitive cheer, she participated in school cheer at St. Pius X from first grade up until 8th grade. She then continued her school cheer career at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, whilst cheering competitively at Mrs. Lisas Cheer & Dance. After graduating high school, Laura was offered a job to travel with the UCA program. After a week of thinking, she declined because she already had her sights set on becoming a real estate agent. Because she was still local, she began coaching tumbling, competitive cheer, and private lessons for the next 3 years. As her real estate career prospered, she no longer had the time to commit 12 hours a week to her team/ students. In turn, she continued doing private lessons and realized how much she missed coaching. Shortly after, she ran into the opportunity to coach tumbling again here at TPDA and took it without hesitation. We are so happy to have Miss Laura at TPDA