Donna Sternberg, Artistic Director
Donna Sternberg graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in Dance and Psychology. After graduation she co-founded the Mixed Motion Dance Company, where she choreographed, performed and taught throughout California, Oregon and Washington states. Desiring to work with artists of other disciplines, Ms. Sternberg moved on to become Artistic Director of Dance Collaborative, where she choreographed and performed solo and collaborative concerts. In 1985 she founded Donna Sternberg & Dancers, a modern dance company, to express her vision of the communicative power of movement. The company is based in Santa Monica, California. She has danced in the companies of Donald Byrd, Mary Jane Eisenberg, Dance/LA and TNR: Moebius.

Ms. Sternberg has professionally premiered over 70 works since 1975 throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico; several have been collaborations with artists of other disciplines including composers, visual artists, poets, actors and digital media. Her choreography has been critically acclaimed for its “exceptional ability to communicate through pure movement” (Los Angeles Times). She has choreographed four full-evening works, the most recent in 2007 entitled “/Rage to Know/”, a collaboration with digital media artist Michael Masucci. Ms. Sternberg has been commissioned to create works for the California Science Center, Dance Moving Forward Festival, California Choreographer’s Festival, Catlin Gabel School in Oregon, Valley College and the Alleluia Dance Theatre. She was nominated for the Dewar’s Young Choreographer’s Award and was named one of the most outstanding choreographers in Los Angeles in 2005 and 2007 by the Beverly Hills Outlook. She has received support for her work and dance company from the California Arts Council, California Council for the Humanities, National Performance Network, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Department, Culver City Cultural Affairs Commission, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, National/State/County Partnership, Pacific Bell and the Amgen Foundation. She has participated in adjudicated dance festivals such as Dance Kaleidoscope, Festival of Solos and Duets and Dance Moving Forward in Los Angeles, California Choreographer’s Festival in Laguna Beach and Summerfest in San Francisco. Donna Sternberg & Dancers has been featured in Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit and PBS station KCET’s /Life and Times/ program.

Ms. Sternberg was selected to head the dance program at the first Visual and Performing Arts Summer Institute conducted by the Santa Ana Unified School District in June 2002. In 2001, she was Artist in Residence at UC Irvine as part of the California Dance & Movement Workshop for Dance Educators. Ms. Sternberg has taught in private studios, primary and secondary schools and colleges. These include UC San Diego, Pierce College, Cal State Los Angeles, and in colleges on the West Coast (CA, OR, WA). She has taught as part of Performing Tree, an arts-in-education organization, as a movement specialist on the National Endowment for the Arts Artists-in-Schools Program and is currently part of the Santa Monica Arts Education Project. Ms. Sternberg was appointed to the Santa Monica Arts Commission in December 2001.