Kristen Jeanes-Moody • Owner/Artistic Director

Since opening her Metairie studio’s doors in 2002, Kristen has consistently afforded students with opportunities to expand and refine their dance experiences by retaining a variety of professional dancers and choreographers who have trained and performed all over the globe. Such choreographers’ specialties range from advanced ballet to hip hop, and every imaginable dance style in between.

In 2012, Kristen decided the time was right to finally fulfill the lack of dance education in Lakeview, New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina. She therefore expanded her Dancer’s Pointe family by opening a second studio in the area. This studio has thrived since its opening and continues to grow and develop every year.

Kristen’s personal dance education extends not only to all traditional disciplines, but also includes the West Coast Swing. She and her husband, Shawn, have instructed both children and adults in this iconic style for over fifteen years. As partners, they have competed extensively in an effort to contribute to the genre’s renewed and ever-increasing popularity among all age groups.

Kristen does not rely solely on her dance experience when operating her two studios. Her background in education also allows her to persevere. Kristen received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education from the University of New Orleans in 2002. Such an education provides her with an undeniable ability to both motivate and communicate effectively with children of all ages.

The atmosphere cultivated by Kristen as a result of her education and experience gained over twenty-one years as Director of Dancer’s Pointe is one of exceptional technique and unprecedented choreography. Of equal importance to her and the Dancer’s Pointe instructors is fostering comradery, developing confidence and illustrating impartiality within and among the students.

Harmony Acain • Instructor

Harmony Acain’s extensive ballet, jazz and lyrical background includes an impressive array of contacts that compliment her qualifications. Her studies have led her to New York’s “Broadway Dance Center” and, while living in Los Angeles, to the “Edge Performing Arts Center.” Harmony has appeared in televised commercials for Burger

King and Soundtrack Audio, performed in industrial shows for major media establishments and was an assistant choreographer for the 2017 Miss Universe Pageant. Harmony’s fast paced, award-winning choreography is greatly sought after. She has been on the Dancer’s Pointe staff for the past 20 years and works closely with the DP Thrive competition team.

Stephani Kammer • Hip Hip/Contemporary Jazz Instructor

Stephani Kammer-Taylor resides in New Orleans as a professional instructor and choreographer. After earning her Bachelor of Performing Arts degree from Oklahoma City University, Stephani began her professional career in New York appearing in regional theaters, industrials, and prime time television.

Upon relocating to Los Angeles, Stephani would begin her decade long working relationship with Janet Jackson. She has appeared in several videos and television performances with Ms. Jackson and served as Assistant Creative Director to Gil Duldulao on Janet’s Rock Witch U world tour. In recent years, since returning to New Orleans, she has been hired by production companies such as Touch Down Entertainment and Caballero Casting to serve as an agent for local talent. Stephani played a key role in casting the seventy-five local dancers for the Super Bowl halftime show featuring Beyonce and has provided talent for international commercials such as Wal-Mart. Stephani currently serves on the faculty at NOCCA (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) and is the Head Choreographer for the Miss Universe pageant. Most recently she choreographed an episode of Hulu’s Iron Mike series and an episode of a brand new, unreleased Netflix show. Stephani has been inducted into The Cambridge Who’s Who Among Executive & Professional Women for her many years of hard work and dedication to the arts. Mrs. Kammer-Taylor has taught internationally in Tokyo, Japan at Broadway Dance Center and traveled to over 65 countries educating and inspiring dancers all over the globe.

Denise Oustalet • Ballet Instructor

A native New Orleanian, received her BA in Education from St. Mary’s Dominican College. She studied on scholarship at Harkness House School for Ballet Arts, Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre in New York. She received the Louisiana State Arts Council Fellowship Award for study at the Academie de Danse Princesse Grace (Monte Carlo), International Centre de Danse (Cannes), Stuttgart Balletsaal (Stuttgart), and Pineapple Dance Center (London.) Her professional credits include: Principal dancer with Delta Festival Ballet, New Orleans Opera, Santa Fe Opera (and Ballet Mistress), Palm Beach Opera and Dallas Ballet. Her versatility in leading roles ranged from the classics of: The Sleeping Beauty to the contemporary as The Acid Queen in Tommy. She was the architect and Director of Dance for the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) from 1976-2001. She is in demand throughout the region as a master teacher and choreographer. Her expertise includes: classical ballet, pointe, flamenco, character, modern and jazz. She was recognized seven times by The National Foundation for the Arts/Presidential Scholars program as an “Outstanding Mentor,” and received Gambit’s (1994) “Big Easy Award for Best Choreographer in Musical Theatre.” She was the Director of the Ballet School for the 2000 Ballets Russes International Reunion.

She has choreographed ballet, musical theatre and opera productions for: Allegro Ballet of Houston, Ballet Alexandria, Corpus Christi Ballet, San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet, Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre’, University of New Orleans’ Opera Theatre and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. She was a consultant for emerging performing and creative arts schools in the USA and Canada.

She served on the Louisiana State Arts Council/Division of the Arts and the Kentucky State Arts Council. Her dedication to dance education is demonstrated by her passion for preserving the art of classical ballet through quality training and positive mentoring.

Amanda Frischhertz • Instructor

Amanda has been on the Dancer’s Pointe faculty for eleven seasons now, but she has been with the DP family for seventeen! She graduated from Louisiana State University receiving a BS in Business Administration with a minor in Psychology in 2015. Amanda has extensive training in ballet, lyrical, contemporary, jazz, and hip hop and served as a member of DP’s award winning competition team for four years where she won the Elite Dancer award from West Coast Dance Explosion.

Her professional dance industry experience includes performing with Nelly and Florida Georgia Line, dancing in the 2014 and 2015 Miss USA pageants, performing with Beyoncé in the Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show, appearing in numerous music videos for local New Orleans artists, and choreographing and performing for local band, Karma. Over the past nine years she has also choreographed award winning competition dances and productions for the Dancer’s Pointe Thrive Company where her pieces have won numerous high scores and choreography awards. Amanda also works closely alongside middle and high school dance teams around the New Orleans area, choreographing small groups and solos for state competitions. Along with being a mommy to her two little girls, Mila and Lucca, and one on the way, Amanda loves to inspire young dancers, create, and share her passion of dance with her students!

Tes Savoie • Instructor

Tes Savoie began dancing at age 2 and has danced for over 30 years; working as an assistant teacher through high school and college. She holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Humanities degree, associate degrees in Early Childhood Education and Culinary Arts. She is currently at LSUA for her elementary certification. She is also a kindergarten teacher at Greenlawn Terrace and owns an in-home baking business. This will be her 15th year as a mother of two at Dancer’s Pointe and her eleventh year as an instructor. Working with DP’s smallest dancers makes her heart happy!

Katie O’Leary • Instructor

Katie O’Leary began dancing at age 5 and began competitive dance at age 8. A native of New Orleans, Katie trained at Mari Milnar Dance Academy in various disciplines, including ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and musical theatre. She also served as a four year member of the Mount Carmel Academy Carmelettes and was captain and choreographer for the National Champion team. She graduated from Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS with a B.S. in Educational Psychology as well as she graduated from Loyola College of Law in 2006. She taught teen and elite jazz and lyrical and choreographed for the competition team Dancing Feet Studio in Starkville. Katie is a real estate agent, barre instructor at The Barre Code in Lakeview and a proud Dancer’s Pointe dance mom to her two DP dancers, and she is in her Sixth year as part of DP faculty where she especially loves to teach DP’s smallest little ballerinas!

Maya Gisclair

Maya Gisclair started dancing at age 2 at Gayle McDonald Dance Studio. At age 7 , she began dancing competitively with Dari Pennino Dance Academy where she trained in styles including Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip Hop, and Improvisation. Maya started with Dancer’s Pointe in 2014 to continue her dance education through high school while choreographing as captain of her high school cheerleading team.

Since 2018, she has been teaching at Dancer’s Pointe while getting her Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She is now working towards her Masters of Social Work.

Beverly Bagby

Beverly Bagby began dancing when she was two years old. After a difficult start her first year, she left dancing briefly and returned when she was four years old to Dancer’s Pointe. During her early years at Dancer’s Pointe she was duly involved in dancing and competitive cheerleading, and at the age of eight decided that dancing was her passion and gave up competitive cheerleading to dance full time. Beverly danced for Dancer’s Pointe for eleven years until her graduation from Destrehan High School in 2017. After high school, Beverly wanted to keep her passion and love for dancing alive so she began assistant teaching and has been teaching for Dancer’s Pointe for the last five years. Beverly hopes that she can leave a legacy of love and passion for dance to her students. When Beverly is not dancing, she is working as an administrative assistant at FRISNDT.

Megan L’Hoste

Megan L’Hoste has been training as a dancer for 19 years. She was a student at Dancer’s Pointe and received her teacher’s certificate from DP when she graduated high school. She has been teaching at Dancer’s Pointe for 6 years. Megan is now working towards a degree in Business Management at LSU. While she was a student at Dancer’s Pointe, she was on the competition team for 10 years. With being on Dancer’s Pointe’s competitive team, she has taken many classes from well known dancers and has received multiple scholarships from companies like Streetz Dance Convention and NTG. Megan has also been traveling and assisting teachers such as Victoria Pizzo. She is continuing to train and grow in dance, and she is working towards a career as a professional dancer.

Heidi Malnar

Heidi Malnar is an Emmy Award and Big Easy Award winning dancer and choreographer from Chicago. She earned her BA in dance from Columbia College Chicago and went on to perform with Chicago Tap Theatre and Jump Rhythm Jazz Project. Heidi has been in New Orleans for the past eleven years, and is currently on the dance faculty at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. She is the founder and director of HeidiTAPS, a tap dance educational program in New Orleans. In 2013 she created Theatre on Tap– New Orleans’ premier rhythm tap performance company. Heidi has also choreographed many productions at The National WWII Museum’s BB’s Stage Door Canteen, Le Petit Theatre, See ‘Em Onstage Theatre Company and Rivertown Theaters.

Mallory L’Hoste

Mallory L’Hoste was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and started her dance career at the early age of one. She was a student at Dancer’s Pointe for thirteen years and danced competitively for twelve of those years. During her time as a competitive dancer, she took many classes from well known dancers and choreographers from across the country. She has received scholarships from dance companies such as Hollywood Vibe, DanceMakers, The Streetz Dance, and more. She attended high school at Mount Carmel Academy where she danced for the Carmelettes dance team for four years and served as the head captain for her senior year. While dancing for the Carmelettes, the team earned three consecutive state titles and one national title. She is now attending Louisiana State University as she works towards a degree in Biological Sciences. While attending LSU, her love for dance still grows as she continues training, teaching, and choreographing at Dancer’s Pointe. Mallory hopes to continue to always guide and inspire dancers through her passion and love for dance.

Beverly Morris

Beverly Morris was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she grew up training in all styles of dance. While in high school at the age of 17, she performed with Janet Jackson at her “Unbreakable” World Tour concert as a backup dancer. After such an incredible experience, Beverly knew she wanted to pursue a career in dance. For the three years to follow, her dancing got her a spot as a company assistant for a dance convention called “The Streetz”. During those tours, she assisted and trained under choreographers such a Mollee Gray, Donovan Gibbs, and Alexa Moffett. Beverly has also trained closely under Seth Robinson and Jeff Wolfe while being a Tribe Dance assistant for 3 years. Beverly’s love for dance not only shows in her personal training, but also through her love of teaching. She teaches hip hop, jazz, contemporary, technique, ballet, and tap to kids of all ages. She loves being able to share her passion with the next generation. While her love for dance continues, most recently Beverly graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University, where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design. Currently, she travels the country assisting her mentor, Sloan-Taylor Rabinor. Beverly is reliable, hard-working, professional, and determined.

She believes a good work ethic makes a great dancer and continued learning leads to greatness. Beverly has enjoyed transforming from her roll as a former student to instructor at Dancer’s Pointe!

Victoria Pizzo

Victoria Pizzo was born and raised in New Orleans, LA where she trained, choreographed, and danced competitively until she was 18. She then attended Chapman University where she received a BFA in Dance Performance, as well as Minors in English Literature and Creative Writing. At Chapman she fell deeper in love with choreography and truly began to perfect her craft in that avenue of dance. Following graduation, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her professional dance career. As a member of the Miss Universe choreography team, headed by Stephani Kammer, she has worked with artists such as Neyo, Fergie, JoJo, Tyga, Rachel Platten, Boyz II Men, Flo Rida, and Travis Garland. She was also given the opportunity to choreograph the dancers on stage, which was her national television choreographic debut. She was most recently featured as a dancer in Netflix’s Tall Girl 2 and the BETPlus series Sacrifice. Some of Victoria’s Television and Commercial credits include Coca-Cola, Nutralite, World of Dance, Smirnoff, Miss USA, Absolut Vodka, TransAmerica and Fashion Week to name a few. You would have also seen her dance in the viral Youtube video “Cry Me A River” choreographed by Andrew Winghart and she danced in Universal Studio’s Renfield. Victoria is currently on faculty for Lux Dance Co. She also judges and teaches for The Movement Dance Competition and Convention. She is a working dancer and choreographer in the New Orleans and Los Angeles film/tv industries and is represented by Clear Talent Group. Victoria also loves to teach students of all ages, especially at her home studio Dancer’s Pointe. She genuinely loves sharing her knowledge of technique, style, secrets of the industry and most importantly her passion for dance to the next generation of entertainers

Tiffany Donovan

Tiffany Donovan was born and raised in Metairie, LA. Her love for dance began at age 3 at Dance Company Ltd., where she continued through high school. She was a member of the Chapelle Hi-Steppers Dance Team. After graduating from Archbishop Chapelle High School, she attended the University of New Orleans where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a Pre-Law Concentration. She was also a member of the University of New Orleans Dance Team. After graduation, she began working for Progressive Insurance Legal Counsel, but her love for dance never stopped. She then became a NFL Cheerleader for the New Orleans Saints. She is also currently the Dance Coach at Loyola University and Cheer Coach at Tulane University.

Byron Calix

Byron Calix was born in San Francisco, CA. While he lived in the Southern California are a during the early 1980’s, he was provided the opportunity to experience firsthand the art of break dancing during the peak of the break dancing craze. He eventually relocated to New Orleans, LA at the age of 12. From there he continued to pursue his dancing and tumbling endeavors. By the age of 15, he was touring the country as a choreographer and dancer with different artists, in addition to being a hip-hop instructor and tumbling coach.

Furthermore Byron coaches athletes, cheerleaders, and dancers. However his specialty is coaching children. His focus is geared toward teaching his students the importance of body-alignment and core-training at an early age. With twenty plus years of coaching in Greater New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas, he is dedicated to providing a unique yet solid foundation for aspiring tumblers.

In late 2006, Byron was introduced to West Coast Swing and instantly possessed a passion for the dance. By early 2007, he achieved the prestigious title of AANCE Amateur National Champion. Since then, he has had the opportunity to learn and compete with some of the top WCS dancers in the world which helped him progress into all star level in 2009. Now a classic competitor and professional himself, Byron brings a unique and creative edge to WCS. He is known for his ability to express joy which is contagious to his students as he believes that dancing is meant to be fun. He also strives to help each dancer make WCS their own dance and to keep it exciting and light-hearted. Lastly, Byron is known not only for his joyous and motivating personality, but for the steady progression of his students regardless of age. They are always reminded why they love to dance.

Natalie Sunseri

Natalie grew up dancing at Dancer’s Pointe, where she trained, performed, and competed on the DP Thrive Competition Team. Her training touched nearly all styles of dance. Natalie is a recent graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi’s dance program and holds a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography, along with an English minor. Her Honors College/Dance thesis, titled “A Poetically Embodied out of Body Experience,” explores her love of both poetry writing and choreography and defines embodiment with both in mind. Natalie is excited to continue her dance-teaching journey at DP! Her future goals include auditioning for and working with a contemporary performance company, as well as obtaining her MFA in dance so that she can become a dance professor.

Michaela Todaro

Michaela Todaro is originally from New Orleans, LA and is an alumnus of Louisiana State University with a B.A. in Communication Studies. Throughout high school she was a competitive dancer and received numerous scholarships with Jump, LA Dance Magic, Velocity Dance Convention, Hollywood Vibe and Dupree Dance. She has assisted Kavita Rao, Meghan Way Stinson, Thayne Jasperson, Terrill Mitchel and Kobi Rozenfeld across the country and internationally. And has also worked as the Visual media manager for Velocity Dance Convention and Dupree Dance convention. Michaela is now based out of New Orleans and Los Angeles, CA working as a professional dancer, master teacher and choreographer and is represented by Go 2 Talent Agency. Her credits include The Musical Doc, Esther Anaya, Gigi Radics, Karmagraphy Entertainment, Colorstreet, Tall Girl II and Renfield.