High Pointe Dance Staff
McKenzi Walker
With 18+ years of teaching experience, McKenzi is excited to lead the team at HPPAS! McKenzi and her husband Brian live in Rogers where they raise their four kids (Joe 15, Claire 15, Ryan 8, Hannah 6). Brian is the head baseball coach at Rogers Heritage High and you can often find them at the ballpark.
Over the past 2 decades, McKenzi has developed her own upbeat and energetic teaching style. Her goal is to instill her love of dance in all her students. McKenzi grew up in the dance studio, under the direction of Audra Lee and Amanda Craven. When she was in the fourth grade she had the opportunity to study under the legendary Gregory Hines. His belief in her made her realize dance is what she wanted to pursue. She hopes to instill that same passion in her students. McKenzi’s training includes tap, jazz, pom, musical theater, tumbling, and cheer. She specializes in tap, music theater, and pom choreography. Her routines have won numerous awards at competitions, including multiple choreography and overall entertainment awards.
McKenzi loves kids and getting to share her love of dance with them is a dream come true. She aims to inspire her students to challenge themselves, grow, and be good humans!
Rebecca Mala
Mrs.Rebecca is a ballet Instructor and choreographer with 20 years experience working with all ages of dancers to help them understand and appreciate the fine art of classical ballet while helping each dancer maximize their potential to be versatile and intelligent students and performers. She has a BFA in Ballet Performance with extensive experience in performing, teaching and choreographing. Mrs. Rebecca uses this experience to build a strong foundation of ballet through constant guidance, motivation and inspiration.
Originally from Little Rock, she performed numerous roles with Ballet Arkansas and attended numerous Regional Dance America workshops with the company. She has also performed professionally with Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Oklahoma Festival Ballet and Los Angeles Contemporary Ballet. She also performed as a dancer in commercials and film while living in Los Angeles.
In addition to performing, Mrs. Rebecca has been the Children’s Ballet Mistress for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker at The Walton Arts Center and looks forward to continuing with this organization when they return to Fayetteville. She was also the Ballet Director for Revolution Dance Center In LA. She helped implement and organize a structured, leveled ballet program for the studio’s 1,200 dancers. In addition to helping this program grow and thrive, she choreographed numerous pieces for their competitive dance groups and their ballet company, Revolution Ballet Theatre. Her students have gone on to perform professionally in tv and film and have also received scholarships to various dance programs such as School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, ABT, and many college and university dance programs. Most recently, Rebecca was the Ballet Director for The Movement Dance Studio where she worked with local dancers to train and prepare them for the stage and auditions by strengthening their technique and increasing their love of the art of ballet.
Mrs. Rebecca is very excited to work with the dancers at High Pointe and help them grow as technicians and performers!
Arissa Sanders
Arissa Sanders is the founder of High Pointe Performing Arts Studio! She started teaching as a sophomore in high school and gained a huge passion for working with dancers. Arissa is a graduate of Bentonville High School and has a degree in Exercise Science. She was Miss Arkansas Valley in 2008 and went on to compete for Miss Arkansas. Arissa was selected as a VIP for Dance Olympus and toured nationally with them working with amazing instructors including, Sarah Jo Fazio, Sam Fiorello, and Ian Klein. She was also selected for Junior and Senior dancer of the year throughout her competition years. Arissa had the pleasure of working with the great Ms. Peggie Wallis where she grew a love for ballet. Arissa went on to dance with the Tulsa Ballet Company and performed in their world premier of the newly choreographed, Nutcracker and in the North Carolina Dance Theatre version of Snow White, as the Blue Bird. Arissa was a UDA (Universal Dance Association) Staff member and had the wonderful opportunity to work with multiple dance teams and amazing instructors from all over the country. Arissa has won numerous choreography awards and her students have won technique awards and top overall placements at competitions. She enjoys choreographing for local dance teams and continuing her dance training at multiple conventions throughout the year.
Chloe Barton
Chloe Barton was a competitive dancer for 15 years at Triplett and Propst in Farmington, MO. She has won multiple regional and national titles as a soloist and a group dancer. She competed on season 8 of America’s Got Talent as a part of Innovative Force where she was able to perform multiple times on the stage of Radio City Music Hall and made it to the top 12 of the competition. Chloe also traveled to conventions and received scholarships from ASH, The Pulse, JUMP, and 24seven, among others.
She continued her dance career into college where she was a member of the Ole Miss Rebelettes during the 2017-2018 season, and a member of the Razorback Pom Squad from 2019-2021.
Chloe is a recent graduate of the University of Arkansas Speech Pathology program and will be working in Rogers Public Schools this year. She enjoys working with children and making a positive impact on their lives whether it be through dance or speech and language.
Lexi Chinchar
Bio coming soon….
Jocie Cyrenne
We are beyond thrilled to have Jocie Cyrenne as our office manager. Jocie is a mom of 4 and can do all the things! Organize/plan/sew/order/figure-out-anything, she can do it all! She helps keep High Pointe running smoothly! She will be the first face you see when you walk in to HPPAS so make sure to say hi! We are so thankful for Ms. Jocie!
Myra Owens
Charlotte Cyrenne
Bio coming soon..
