Dancers

Dancers & Artists

Donna Von Joo-Tornell is the Artistic Director of Atelier5. The company’s objectives include collaborations with other artists, dance performances in alternative spaces, and is informed by the belief that everyone is entitled to dance and all people have the ability to understand the language of contemporary dance.

Her most recent production was Cradle and All, a dance piece in three parts including He Sat Down Beside Her, Small Secrets, and Cradle and All. This dance looked at children’s nursery rhymes and their overlooked violent and unsettling elements. Prior to this she choreographed Remaining Recording Time Is. . . . She has enjoyed several collaborations with artist Sieglinde Van Damme. Under her direction, Atelier5 received a Mentor Graphics Foundation grant to do a participatory children’s dance event at the San Jose Museum of Art.

Ms. Von Joo-Tornell earned her BA in dance from San Jose State University where she had the opportunity to dance with Limón West Dance Company, Limón Company, and UDT (University Dance Theater). She has also been seen in Cat Wiilis’ Diaspora, with Stamping Zebra Dance Company, Crash, Burn, and Die dance company, BelcCobra Dance, Shipp Dance Theatre, and Margaret Wingrove Dance Company. She has choreographed more than a dozen pieces and seen them produced through Dance Romanesque, DanceWorks, Choreographers Collective, and Eddie Gale's Concert for World Peace, at Circle of Palms during National Dance Week’s Dancing Downtown in San José, California and Modernbook /Gallery 494 in Palo Alto, California.

In addition she is a resident dance artist for ArtPath and has worked for Young Audiences San José and Silicon Valley. Both are programs that bring dance to primary schools. She is also on Faculty at Dancenter in Capitola and the Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center in Santa Cruz. Finally, she has been a dancer for a diverse collection of choreographers including: Sharon Took-Zozaya, Kim Shipp, Emilie Plauché, Rick Heiman, Erica Essner, Fred Mathews, Gary Masters, Robert Regala, Sylvie Minot, and others. Through workshops she has had the opportunity to work with Ralph Lemon, Daniel Nagrin, Carlos Orta, Nina Watt, Carla Maxwell, Raphaél Boumaila, and Ernestine Stodelle.

Donna Von Joo-Tornell and Atelier5 have previously associated with the following:

Erica Galante

Originally from Idaho, Erica Galante comes from a theatrical background where she has been performing on stage for over 15 years as an actress. Soon after moving to California in 2004, she slowly combined her love of acting with a love of dancing when she began dancing locally with Deanna Ross, Laura Akard, and Walter White. In 2010, she received her B.A. in Dance and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley. During her time in the Bay Area, Erica studied with and performed the works of Merce Cunningham, Joe Goode, Peggy Hackney and Katie Faulkner, among others. Erica currently teaches dance and choreography at Stevenson School and RockStar Dance Studio, and dances with the Monterey Dance Collective, Mary A. Chase, and is thrilled to be part of this project with Donna and the gang of Atelier5.

Mitch Lang

Mitch Lang started dancing professionally 25 years ago in Las Vegas, Nevada. His training is in ballet, jazz, modern, and tap. Mitch dances now more than ever for the pure joy of it.

Jenna Monroe

Jenna Monroe is a current dance instructor for Spindrift School of the Performing Arts and Artist in Residence at Oceana High School in Pacifica. She also co-directs requisitedance alongside Travis Rowland and Michaela Shoberg. Her love of modern dance began at San Francisco State dancing with Cathleen McCarthy, Susie Whipp, Paco Gomes, and Wendy Dimond. She was a member of University Dance Theater from 2003-2007. Her choreography has been performed at the American College Dance Festival and at McKenna Theater. In 2007, her choreography got her selected to receive a very generous grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Jenna would like to thank Spindrift School of Performing Arts for their continued support as well as the Irene Scully Foundation.

Kelly Somerville

Kelly Somerville resides in Santa Cruz with her youngest son Jasper. She is a stylist at Faust and the lead singer of "blame it on Kelly," a Santa Cruz cover band. She earned her degree in dance from SFSU in 1998. Kelly would like to say thank you to her parents and to her amazing boyfriend, Erick Leedburg, for their continual support with all of her life’s constantly changing projects.

Aaron Spencer

Aaron Spencer has been studying dance at Cabrillo College since 2008, taking mainstream classes and also assisting in adaptive and integrated dance classes. He has performed at the Crocker Theater at Cabrillo College in Aptos; with Stamping Zebra Dance Theatre at Spector Dance in Marina, the Big Sur Spirit Garden and Dancin’ Downtown in San Jose; at A Taste for the Arts in Salinas and in the Emerging Choreographers Showcase at the 418 Project in Santa Cruz.

Jamie Thompson

Jamie Thompson received her Bachelors of Humanities & the Arts from San Jose State University in 2011. Her concentration was Dance with a Minor in Anthropology. At SJSU she studied Contemporary Jazz with Jill Jager; Limón Technique Gary Masters and Maria Basile; Contemporary Modern with Heather Cooper, Regina Decossa, Sharon Took-Zozaya, Jayne King; and Ballet with Gary Masters. She has also worked as a dance teacher assistant at Cabrillo College, in stage crew, and as a bartender.

Erick Ocho

Erick Ocho was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1981. He is a composer (of audible and visible things....), musician, videographer, and cartoonist. He earned his BA in music from UC Berkeley. He now lives in Santa Cruz and plans to reside next to the Pacific Ocean for the remainder of his days.

Sieglinde Van Damme

Sieglinde Van Damme is an award-winning visual artist based in California, although she used to be an economist with European roots. Over the course of her 20-year career she participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions spanning the US, Europe, Russia and Japan. Her current work reflects on the multilayered dynamics and energy of daily life, through abstract paintings and large-format, photo-based prints.

Award highlights are the 2009 Lorenzo di Medici Award in Italy; the 2014 Belle Foundation Individual Grant Award for Artistic Merit; the 2018 Leigh Weimer Artist Award in San Jose; and a 2019 Grant from the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs’ Creative Industries Incentive Fund through the Center of Cultural Innovation.

Her work and writings have been published in various catalogs and media publications both in the US and in Europe, including the co-authoring of an internationally bestselling anthology. Her artwork can be found in numerous private and corporate collections around the globe. Sieglinde holds both an MS Economics and a Master in Fine Arts (MFA).

Scott Stobbe

New Orleans based composer and guitarist Scott Stobbe’s diverse musical projects and original compositions have been performed across the continental United States, Canada, Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Belgium, Holland and Italy. Scott Stobbe received a B.M. in music composition from Portland State University and a Master’s in Music from Stephen F. Austin University. He studied Jazz performance at the Escuela Municipal de Música de A Coruña in La Coruña, Spain between 1999-2001 and has attended classes and workshops with Pauline Oliveros, Lou Harrison, Michael Byron and Marin Alsop.

Scott’s original music compositions have been performed nationally and internationally by The New Music Works Ensemble in Santa Cruz CA, The Cabrillo College Guitar Orchestra, Thollem McDonas, The Blue Cranes, The Quadraphonnes, Triems, and the New Music Society of Portland. His music has also been featured in two full-length films: The Cedars and Beat The Shift.

Scott believes that music is a powerful force that can uplift, heal, educate and bring people together.

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