Creative Space Katy -- a safe and encouraging training center for students from toddlers through adulthood to learn the art of dance, theatre, voice, and musical theatre – opened in January at 5745 13th Street, Suite C2 in Katy with two full-time and 11 part-time employees. The company offers dance, theatre, musical theatre, voice, and fitness classes for all ages, with “Parent & Me” classes for the toddlers all the way to open-level drop-in classes for adults.

“Creative Space Katy was founded out of a dream to provide a nurturing space for artistic growth for all ages through education and performance, fostering creativity in every student,” owner Sarah Sneesby told the Katy Times in an email interview. “The dream has been churning over the past eight years, slowly evolving to the reality that is Creative Space Katy. We started physically looking for space in 2024 and found our home in 2025. It took summer/Fall of 2025 to build out the empty warehouse to the three studios that comprise our location on 13th Street.”

Sneesby is also the co-director of education, and also serves as dance, fitness, and theatre Instructor. She trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with an MFA in movement. She has over 12 years of training in dance and more than six years in acting and musical theatre training with over 20 years of teaching experience in dance and theatre education. Sneesby is a resident teaching artist at Alley Theatre, and her directing and choreography work has been performed locally in Houston as well as nationally in New York and internationally in London and festivals around the UK.

"As a mother of three young daughters, I remember how influential my dance and theatre teachers were on me growing up,” Sneesby said. “Yes, they taught me technical performance skills, but what remained past all of that was the impact they each had (both good and bad), on shaping who I became as a human being. Arts is about so much more than performance, when done correctly, it teaches integrity, builds the foundation for open and clear communication, establishes trust and a teamwork mentality. It builds confidence, and through a spiraling curriculum, shows students that over time, anything is possible through hard work and dedication.”

“I want a safe, nurturing space for my own children to grow, with documented curriculum, trained teachers, and material that is age appropriate for physical, emotional, and social maturity,” Sneesby said. "As a high school theatre teacher, I often worked with students who had incredible skills in singing or acting or dancing but struggled to find any training outside of school. Many of them found production opportunities but were missing the true education that comes from classroom-style learning.”

Her colleague and co-director of education Sammy McManus echoed that concern. “I grew up doing theatre and dance in Katy and jumped at the opportunity to help build a space to meet this need in my old stomping grounds,” said the 2007 Katy High School grad. “I want a space where students are comfortable being uncomfortable; being an artist often requires vulnerability, and I want to provide an environment where everyone feels safe and confident making choices that push them and allow them to

grow." McManus has spent ten years in classroom education, where she is dual certified in dance and theatre, and she founded a nonprofit theatre in Houston. She is a certified UIL Contest Manager and Adjudicator and continues to serve public school students through her work in musical theatre choreography, teacher mentorship, and intimacy choreography.

Creative Space is different from other companies offering similar services, Sneesby said. “We have developed curriculum, syllabi, and lesson plans for all of our classes that both incorporate TEK learning metrics as well as industry standards, so that students are receiving the same information and training regardless of the teacher,” she said. “We will have semester skill-assessments/check-ins to ensure that students are progressing through their skills as a way to celebrate slow, continued growth.

The studio is also technique focused, with classes which are a co-requisite for any performance classes offered. “We are super passionate about providing the skills needed for success in the performing arts, and believe that begins with training and then is applied to performances,” Sneesby said.

But there have been challenges in launching the business. Their space started as an empty flex space warehouse, with nothing but a floor plan with doors and windows. Sneesby worked with the landlords and a contractor to take a sketch and turn it into a full design of the space that it is now. Since this location is her first brick and mortar location, she considers herself lucky to have a landlord and real estate agent who helped walk her through all the permit applications and processes to ensure everything went by without a hitch.

As with any new business, getting their name into the community has been their biggest challenge. The duo continues to find or create ways to engage with people in the community on their turf. “We have engaged with community members at Mary Jo Peckham Park and La Centerra's Central Green so that we can make genuine connections with people,” Sneesby said. “We continue to engage with the community through Facebook groups and seek out in-person events that we can attend or support that allow us to meet face-to-face.”

For now, the pair is focused on building the studio. Each class will have an end of the semester showcase at our studio where the students will perform a sampling of what they have learned. “We may eventually switch to an end of year recital format, but not until we have outgrown the space we already have,” Sneesby said.

“In a dream world – over the next few years we will gradually fill out the three classrooms we have and then expand to include some intentional performance spaces so that we can both hold our own recitals and have year-round performances (both professional and student-based productions) right here in Katy,” Sneesby said.

“We hope to create a space that our community is proud of,” Sneesby said. “We want to develop performers and contribute learning opportunities that grow the cultural and artistic landscape of Old Katy- and every space that our students enter.”