McKensie Gilbert began dancing in Sapulpa, OK at a young age training in ballet, jazz, tap and lyrical. As a teen, she began studying hip hop, contemporary, and theatre and fell even more in love with dance. After high school she began teaching hip hop and lyrical at Ovations Dance Studio in Sapulpa and in 2017 she was blessed to do a couple performances with Portico and fell back in love with dancing for herself, and in 2018 moved to New York City. In NYC, she trained at Broadway Dance Center, concentrating in theatre jazz,  in their Training Program and Professional Semester, as well as being able to be a part of multiple performances in the city.

Arriving back in Oklahoma, in 2021, she jumped right back in with teaching at Ovations and with Oklahoma Movement, being a part of now 2 Gathering Place performances and their April 2023 show “Sonder.”