Karen Stokes Dance Premieres 4 Corners

CONTACT: Karen Stokes or Toni Valle
Phone: 832-794-5825 (Stokes) 713-409-2838 (Valle)
Email: karen@karenstokesdance.org or toni@karenstokesdance.org

Karen Stokes Dance premieres 4 Corners
Midtown Arts Theater Center Houston

HOUSTON, TX: Karen Stokes Dance premieres the evening length project “4 Corners” January 30 – February 8, 2026, at the Midtown Arts Theatre Complex Houston (MATCH). “4 Corners,” conceived and choreographed by Karen Stokes, will have original music by composer Ben Morris and will be performed by Brittany Bass, Bryan Peck, Michelle Reyes, and Donald Sayre.

“4 Corners” considers life as an on-going ebb & flow of time and space within a contained box. Audience members, seated around the edges of the box, view scenes of a continuous shifting journey. Life is perceived as being on a threshold. Movement considers time/space widening and closing, slowing and quickening, within the four corners of the earth. Stokes leans into the liminal, pulling back from tangibility to explore uncertainty, transition, and spaciousness. 

Karen Stokes is the Artistic Director of Karen Stokes Dance (1997-current) and former Director of Dance and Professor Emerita at the University of Houston (1998-2022). As a choreographer, Stokes has premiered fourteen evening length projects, over 50 repertory works, and nine dance films that have performed in Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland, Toronto, and Sweden. Her non-profit company KSD was the first dance company to receive a Masterminds award by the Houston Press. The Houston Press also twice named Stokes “Best Choreographer in Houston.” In March 2025, Stokes was honored with the Dance Source Houston “SPARK” Artistic Excellence Award, recognizing sustained artistic excellence and contributions to the Houston dance community. Stokes’ choreography has been awarded multiple grants from various foundations, including thirteen Houston Arts Alliance grants. Stokes has received two commissions from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. Stokes co-founded Big Range Dance Festival in Houston at the Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex, where she was a recipient for the Houston Buffy Award in the Best Evening Length work category (Hometown). Her dance film “Gallery Construction I” received “Editor’s Choice” from Dance Magazine. Her educational program “Framing Dance” served 3000+ students annually at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and in HISD from 2008-2020. As a dancer, Stokes performed in New York and nationally with David Gordon and Stephan Koplowitz, as well as in regional/touring musical theater productions of “The Music Man,” “Annie,” and “A Chorus Line.” As a dance educator, Stokes received the UH Distance Education Teaching Award, the regional Teaching Award, the Lence Arts Teaching Award, and was recognized by the Provost for outstanding achievement in the Arts. Stokes has served on the dance faculty at Connecticut College and Kent State University. Stokes has degrees from the High School for Performing & Visual Arts in Houston, the Ohio State University (BFA in dance) and UCLA (MFA in Choreography).

Ben Morris is a composer whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His projects include chamber and large ensemble works, operas, and music for dance, theater, film, and multimedia. He recently lived in Oslo on a Fulbright Grant and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to study the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. Ben’s 2022 debut album, Pocket Guides, takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz, and chamber music. His music has garnered two Downbeat Awards, two ASCAP Herb Alpert Awards and a Morton Gould Award, a commission from New York Youth Symphony’s First Music, and an invitation to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival. A versatile film, theater, and opera composer, Ben scored the documentary films American River, which premiered at Montclair Film Festival, and Saving the Great Swamp. Ben is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. He studied composition at University of Colorado Boulder, Rice University, and University of Miami.

Karen Stokes Dance production team includes Lighting Designer Edgar Guajardo, Costume Designer Ashley Horn Nott, and Company Manager Toni Valle.

“4 Corners” will be performed for an intimate audience size. Audience members are encouraged to get tickets in advance due to limited seating.

Karen Stokes Dance presents “4 Corners” January 31-February 2, and February 5-7, 2026 at 7:30pm, and February 8, 2026, at 2:00pm at Midtown Arts Theater Center Houston (MATCH), 3400 Main St., Houston, Texas 77002. Tickets may be purchased at the MATCH box office at https://matchouston.org/events/2026/4-corners, 713-521-4533 or in person 2:00pm – 5:00pm Wednesday–Friday. For more information, visit www.karenstokesdance or contact Company Manager Toni Valle at 713-409-2838 or toni@karenstokesdance.org.