Sonya Tayeh Brings Sinéad O'Connor Tribute The Surge to the Joyce

Sonya Tayeh's "The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O'Connor," an evening-length dance work performed by 10 women over the age of 40, comes to New York City's Joyce Theater September 16–27. The piece had its premiere at Factory International in Manchester, England, in June.

Tayeh, the award-winning choreographer behind "Moulin Rouge! The Musical," "So You Think You Can Dance" and the recent musical adaptation of "Black Swan," built the work from O'Connor's music and writing. It offers intimate portraits of each performer within what she describes as a visceral collective expression, channeled through the singer's unmistakable voice.

How did grief become the starting point?

The project began with O'Connor's death. "When she passed, I was in a deep grief space," Tayeh said. "I've been a huge admirer of Sinéad since I was a kid. She was the rebel queen and has maintained that stamp in my heart."

Grieving, she noticed something else missing from her field. "In that time I was also curious where the dancers my age or older were, because in my sphere I don't see them as much as I'd like to," she said. The result: "Let's put these things together: Sinéad O'Connor's music with women 40 and up."

What shaped the score and text?

Tayeh drew on albums she has played her whole life, with some songs arriving by chance. She heard "In This Heart" in a coffee shop; "Troy" was playing when she turned on her TV. "Some would cosmically come, and others I just knew I needed to dance to," she said. "Her music is like a live diary."

The piece opens with O'Connor's own narration, drawn from her memoir "Rememberings." Tayeh said she listened to the audiobook 10 times and calls it "one of the most beautiful books of poetry about a life lived." She selected abstract passages that connected to the work's themes "so that it wouldn't be my interpretation of Sinéad's life."

What questions drive the choreography?

Three interlocking themes anchor the work: spirituality, grief and identity. Tayeh frames it through questions about the body and aging. "What are the social constructs that have been put on my body? What forms are mine? What do I want to keep, and what do I want to get rid of?" she asked. "With these 10 women that have over 500 years of collective wisdom and experience, those questions just hit differently."

On grief, she resists separating its contradictions. "There are such beautiful juxtapositional feelings between joy and rage—they suit each other, they need each other," she said. "I want to feel them together."

O'Connor's defiance of imposed roles speaks directly to the cast's situation, Tayeh said. The dancers are "scholars, they're teachers, they're dance artists who are ready to do anything, but their options are made smaller as they grow in age. And I want that to stop. And the only way to do that is to keep doing this."

What has the response revealed?

The biggest surprise has come from younger women. "I've never had so many women say to me 'I wish I was 40. I can't wait till I'm 40,'" Tayeh said. "I really hope I grow older. I want to live for as long as I can, and I want to move my body and treat it as sacred."

Her ambition for the Joyce run extends beyond the theater: "If I hope for anything, I hope that I can reach those dancers who need to know that it's possible."