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.
Allie Summers
Allie has been dancing for many years. She began her training at Robinson’s School of Dance 2. She has trained in Ballet, Tap, Musical Theater, Baton, and Cheerleading. Allie has competed and performed all over the United States in cities such as New York, Las Vegas, Dallas, Biloxi, and Nashville. Through competition conventions and workshops she has trained under many great choreographers from Broadway and Television. Allie began teaching dance at the age of 16 while attending Alma Bryant High School where she was a member of the Kickin’ Cane dancers . She also competed in local, state and national pageants. Some of her titles include, 2006 National Teen Miss International Beauty, 2007 National International Miss, 2008 ARM National Perfect Miss and 2009 Alabama International Girl. Allie is still involved with International Girl as an emcee. She started college at the University of Southern Mississippi where she was a member of the Dixie Darling Dance Team and the Phi Mu sorority while studying Dance Education. Since then she has come back to Mobile where is has serves as a 2011-2012 Crewmate for the USS Alabama while studying at the University of South Alabama. Allie is married to Chad Summers and they have a son, Chatwin and twin girls, Chloe and Clara. This is Miss Allie’s s eleventh year at TPDA and we look forward to many more.
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.
Hayleigh Place
Mrs. Hayleigh started taking dance and gymnastics at the age of three. She enrolled in dance at Kelly’s dance academy where she enjoyed dance, ballet, and tap. She took gymnastics at planet gymnastics in Mobile, Alabama training under Soviet Union Olympic gold medalist Vladimir Novikov. Gymnastics became her passion and she slowly started to shift to just gymnastics over time. She fell in love with the sport and spent many years training four hours a night, every night to be the best gymnast she possibly could. She has won many medals and traveled a great deal enjoying all the sport had to offer , even winning a couple of state titles. She has met many Olympic gymnasts and coaches throughout her career that have further inspired her love for gymnastics and tumbling! Her knowledge on how the body works, and training our body to be able to perform tumbling skills is extensive because of the many years she spent training in gymnastics. She competed competitively until she was 16 years old in the sport of gymnastics, and slowly transitioned into coaching gymnastics and focusing on cheerleading. Her cheerleading career consists of middle school cheer, and cheerleading all throughout high school at Alma Bryant. She was a member of the competition cheerleading squad at Alma Bryant where they have acquired two state championship titles. During camp she won most spirited and All Star cheerleader. She was also a member of the Kickin Cane Dance Team where she furthered her dance knowledge and passion. She has helped to teach young girls many new skills over the years through private lessons, and competitive gymnastics training. She is currently a gymnastics coach at Planet Gymnastics were she gets to continue pursuing her passion. She is a graduate of the University of South Alabama with a bachelors degree in Secondary Education. She is married to Trey Place with two kids, Blake and Rayleigh. This is Mrs. Hayleigh’s second year at TPDA.
Lauren Mangham
Mrs. Lauren began dancing at the age of three. She took dance at Debbie’s School of Dance and later at Kimberly’s School of Dance where she was trained in ballet, tap, jazz and tumbling. She also found the love of cheerleading during this time. That love grew into a 22 year cheerleading career. She has competed in numerous competitions for cheerleading. She has cheered for Theodore Middle/Hankins Middle School, Theodore High school, Troy University and the University of South Alabama. She was a 5 time UCA All-Star cheerleader. She cheered in the Thanksgiving Day parade in Disney World and the Capitol One Bowl in Orlando. She was a finalist in the UCA Jump-off competition multiple times. She was an all-star cheer and tumbling coach for 5 years. She graduated from Troy University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. Mrs. Lauren is currently a stay at home mom. Mrs. Lauren is married to DJ Mangham and they have a son, Aiden and a daughter, Aspen.
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.
