MEET THE STAFF
Kelsey Cutler
Studio Owner/ Director
Kelsey is the Owner of Rise Dance Studio. Kelsey grew up in Utah County but always dreamed of living in St George. In 2018 Her and Her family moved to St George. She absolutely loves it here and feels opening Rise was a big reason she was supposed to be here!
Like many of the dancers at Rise, Kelsey started dancing at age 3. She trained extensively in many different styles of dance including jazz, hip hop, contemporary, ballet, ballroom, tap and tumbling. She found a great love for dance through performing and competing but especially loves the opportunity to share this passion with others through teaching and directing dance. She has been teaching and choreographing dance for 20 years. Her choreography has won national titles for dance studios and drill teams. Her choreography was also featured on "Good Things Utah". She has trained many dancers who are now professional dancers including backup dancers for Selena Gomez, Fergie, Megan Trainor along with others who have competed on So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. Before opening Rise she taught at Center Stage Performing Arts, The Dance Club, The Pointe Acadamy, Studio 1 Dance Center and Move Dance Studio.
She got her degree in Dance at Utah Valley University. There she was on the College Dance Company and the Ballroom Tour Team. Growing up she enjoyed performing with Odyssey Dance Theater's Thriller and in Los Angeles with Mandy Moore's benefit concert, Terpsichoreals. She danced professionally with Center Stage Performing Arts Evolutions of Dance Company.
She also loves spending time with her husband, Mike Cutler, and her 4 beautiful and energetic kids- 1 girl and 3 boys and is grateful for their constant love and support!
Rylee Hilton
Meet Rylee Hilton- our studios company director!
Rylee began dancing at the age of three and has continued to stay apart of the dance world ever since. She trained and competed in many styles including jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, ballet, and more. The training that she received from her studio gave her opportunities such as dancing in Odyssey Dance Theater’s Thriller and Redux Nutcracker, traveling with conventions, and becoming an instructor at two local studios in High School. From there, Rylee became a member of the Herriman High School’s Drill Team, the Mestenas. She competed in all routines, winning awards at both state and national events. After graduating in 2018, Rylee decided to further her education at Utah Tech University, formally known as Dixie State University. While going to school to receive her degree in Psychology and Communications, Rylee danced on the Dixie Blaze Dance Team for four years, serving as captain her final year. She absolutely enjoyed having the opportunity to show her school spirit at many school events and also loved leading her team to their first ever nationals in Anaheim, California, where they placed second in the nation. While attending the University, Rylee became the first teacher at Rise when the studio was known as Little Valley Dance and classes were held in Kelsey’s basement. She has loved being apart of the studio and she absolutely adores all of her students. She is so excited for another year with the Rise family!
Aubrey Leavitt
Aubrey has been dancing and training for 19 years, mainly in jazz and lyrical/contemporary, but has also trained in ballet, tap, hip hop, and other styles. Aubrey grew up here in Southern Utah where she danced at a local studio. While at the studio she was part of of performance and competition teams which allowed her to compete and participate in conventions in Utah and other states. While in high school she was part of Hurricane High’s dance company for 5 years and was captain her senior year. Aubrey is currently attending Utah Tech University where she is a dance major. Aubrey is working on getting her bachelors in dance and then working towards her teaching degree. Since graduating high school 5 years ago she has been the assistant dance company coach at Hurricane High School. She started teaching at Rise after graduating high school, when classes were still held in Kelsey’s basement. Most recently her dance training gave her the opportunity to travel and study in Florence, Italy for 3 weeks. While there she was able to take classes in many styles and compete. Aubrey’s passions are dancing and teaching. She feels so lucky to be able to teach dance every day.
Aynsley Egan
Miss Aynsley grew up in Grantsville, in Tooele County Utah. She started dancing at the age of 3. There weren’t a lot of options for dance classes in Tooele County, so she would make the drive into West Valley to Shellie’s School of Dance, where she trained in Jazz, Comtemporary, and Modern styles. She was on the performance team Jazz Attitude at the studio. She continued to study at Shellie’s even through her busy high school years. While in high school she was a 4 year Dance Company member, and 4 year Drill Team member at Grantsville High. She has competed in drill competitions, and performed at many festivals. One highlight was performing at Country Fan Fest with her high school drill team. She is graduating from Utah Tech University in May, majoring in dance and minoring in business. This past summer she studied abroad in Italy with Utah Tech.
She has worked at Rise a studio for the last 2 years and loves working with all the amazing dancers!
Olivia Irvine
Since the age of four Olivia has had in-depth training in ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, cheer and tumbling. She danced for six years at Rising Stars studio in Alpine, Utah. She also cheered at the private cheer studio Flash for five years. She was the captain of Bountiful Jr. High's cheer team and on
Bountiful High Schoo's state championship team for three years. She placed 1st at state in a jazz solo her sophomore year of high school and 3rd at Nationals the same year. Olivia competed in California with her high school team and in Florida with her private cheer team.
She' s performed all over Utah, California, and Nevada. She has also performed at many events, including Utah Jazz basketball games, Stadium of Fire, and college bowl games, such as the Poinsettia Bowl and the All-American Bowl. She taught dance and tumbling in Alpine, Utah for two years.
Olivia then taught dance and tumbling at Dance Magic in Cedar City for four years while attending SUU. She taught a variety of ages, styles and classes. She was mostly known there for her choreography at competitions and teaching intermediate and advanced tumbling. Her team choreography, solos, and
duets earned several awards including Best Choreography, Overall High Point, Judges Choice Awards, Superior Plus, and Advanced Grand Champions. She took time off from teaching while her and her husband had their three boys and moved around for school and training. They lived in four different states before returning back to southern Utah this past summer.
This is Olivia’s first year at Rise and she is so excited to be teaching in a studio setting again!
Allison Park
Allison has been dancing for as long as she can remember. Her mother owned a studio so she was in classes as soon as possible, around 2 years old. Because of this, she grew up in the dance world. Allison trained extensively in many styles of dance. Some of which include jazz, contemporary, lyrical, hip-hop, ballet, pom, and military. She grew up dancing at Dance Explosion, then moved to Synergy Dance Academy at around 10 years old. Allison was on her high school’s drill team, winning awards such as academic all-state and even being selected for the all-region team. Allison is a performer at heart, and loves any chance to perform for a crowd. Football season was always her favorite. While she loves dancing and competing, Allison has always seemed to have a knack for teaching. Since the age of 12, she had the opportunity to be a teacher’s assistant to gain experience, and by the age of 16 she was given her own classes to teach. She has a gift of cleaning choreography and perfecting technique. Allison has also been teaching tumbling for many years. She loves being able to watch her students master the skills they have been working towards. Allison recently moved from the Salt Lake area to St. George and is excited to see what opportunities await!
Heidi Carpenter
Hi, I'm Miss Heidi. I grew up in Orem and then Cedar Hills, Utah, second oldest in a family of ten kids. I attended Ricks (BYU-ID), participating in their Professional Preschool Program, then served an LDS mission in Florida – Spanish speaking, and came back to finish my bachelor’s degree at BYU as a teacher in Early Childhood Education. I have taught preschool for 14 years. I also managed the Gold’s Gym Daycare for many years. My husband and I have been married for 20 years and we have 6 children, Lucy (19), Trevan (17), Travis (13), Titus (7), Suzette (6) and Abigail (2)! We've moved around a lot over the years, and have been excited about planting our roots in St. George as of January 2022. Some of my favorite things to do are: hang with my family, run, bike, exercise, camp/hike, read, scrapbook, and of course teach kids! I find great joy in connecting with preschool kids to help them feel loved, valued, and learn at that age when the window of opportunity is so great! I love seeing their potential and growth through the school year!
Lovaura
Lovaura was born in Dana Point, CA, but moved to St. George when she was 8 years old. It instantly felt like home to her and she has now lived here for 12 years and counting. She has loved dancing ever since she was a little girl. She started at the age of 3, regularly training and competing in a variety of styles including jazz, hip-hop, contemporary, lyrical, ballet, and acro. She danced with studios until the age of 15, performing at Stadium of Fire and participating in dance camps all over Utah. She then became a member of the Desert Hills Tempest Line Drill Team from 2017-2020. While on drill team, she earned two 1st place region titles, a 1st place state title, and competed in all routines all three of her years. She was honored to become captain of her drill team her senior year of high school. This is where she grew many leadership and teaching skills that made her realize how much she would love to teach dance one day. After graduating high school in 2020, she continued to further her education at Utah Tech University. Now she has the privilege of teaching so many adorable kids every week at Rise Dance Studio and could not be more grateful for the opportunity.
Katie Mackelprang
Katie began clogging at the age of 2 and her love for dance grew immediately. She started competing in many clogging competitions around Utah with her team, where she won many plaques, trophies, and tiaras. She was also in several pageants in her younger years and her clogging routines were always a crowd pleaser. She clogged for 12 years before her dance shoes were traded in for basketball shoes. She danced on her high school drill team for 2 years where she learned different styles of dance and participated in several dance camps with professional dancers. Katie loves how you can tell a story through the art of dance. She has been with Rise since 2019 when her daughter was old enough to start dance, Katie began her dance teaching career and LOVES it. She loves to see the many improvements month to month as she works with the tiny dancers and especially loves watching them shine on stage. Katie will always have a love for dance in her heart and even now, you will still find her clogging around her kitchen.