For the first time in the thirty-seven-year history of the Council of 100, the Council of 100 Selection Committee has chosen a Modern dancer: Donna Sternberg from Santa Monica, California, the Distinguished Woman Artist for 2026. Because the field of dance is one of the seven fine arts, it is perfectly appropriate to have a museum exhibition focused on a dancer and her work: both her performances and her choreography. Sternberg’s exhibition, Dancing Through Time, is a retrospective, tracing her work by means of photography and video from 1970 to 2026. In the stills and moving film images, we experience

Sternberg’s unique style of movement and physical composition. As a solo dancer or as a choreographer of group dances, we see movement that commands its space by reaching, leaping, stretching, and enfolding. Unless outdoors, Sternberg’s choreography focuses on the dancer in a space without backdrops or props. What we appreciate are the shapes and interrelationships of the dancers as they move together or independently of one another.

Sternberg has premiered over 90 original works since 1975, performing not only across this country, but also across Canada, Mexico, and Europe. After dancing with several companies, in 1985, she founded Donna Sternberg & Dancers, a contemporary dance company based in Santa Monica. Her choreography has been acclaimed in the Los Angeles Times for its “exceptional ability to communicate through pure movement.” Sternberg is known for her collaborations with visual artists, composers, poets, actors, and digital media creators as well as scientists.

As part of her Council of 100 Distinguished Woman Artist for 2026 honor, Sternberg will perform with her Company in Fresno later in the fall. She will also teach several master classes for the Dance Departments at Fresno City College and at California State University, Fresno.

Pictured above: Dancers from Donna Sternberg and Dancers as choreographed by Donna Sternberg | Top, left to right: Untitled, 2015, Photo courtesy of Scott Belding and Ancestor's Voices, 2024, Photo courtesy of Sarah Catania | Bottom: Donna Sternberg, 2018, Unknown photographer

Donna Sternberg