The Company


Company History:

Atelier5 originally began in 2001 under a different name. Shortly after Donna became Artistic Director the company performed new works including a collaborative piece in 2004, Urban Lightscapes, performed at Dancin’ Downtown in San Jose. An adaptation of this, Space Energy, was later performed at ModernBook, Palo Alto, California. The company also premiered Twisted Tango at the Logitech Ice Arena, invited by American Ice Theatre as part of National Dance Week.

A new performance, Exposé, was part of the 2005 Retail Dance Festival and performed in the clothing store, Agnes b near Union Square in San Francisco. The following year, a dance centered on winemaking, Vitis Vinifera, was recently performed at San Jose State University for the ChoreoProject Awards.

The company was awarded a grant from Mentor Graphics to create a children’s workshop. In this students learned fundamentals of movement, drawing, and collaboration skills and, finally, created a short performance. The workshop was held at the San Jose Museum of Art in 2006 as one of their ArtSunday events.

Since then Artistic Director Von Joo-Tornell developed a piece entitled Remaining Recording Time. . . This is a particularly personal dance the to accent contrasts in our lives: grief and joy, tragedy and humor, planning and spontaneity, isolation and celebratory gatherings. With dance at its core, this performance incorporates recorded phone messages, creating a kind of oral history as well as music played on a saw. This has been performed as a house concert, at Cabrillo College, Aptos, California and at Works in the Works, Berkeley, California.

In 2012 Atelier5 performed at the first Santa Cruz Fringe Festival and premiered the work The Time of Falling and Flying. Then in 2013 the company took over the program ArtPath formerly run out of San Jose State University. This program promotes arts teaching in public schools. In 2014 Donna completed a 5-week dance program at The California School for the Deaf in Fremont, California.