The Surge: An Ode to Sinead O'Connor in San Diego

The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O'Connor is a world-premiere dance-theater work by choreographer Sonya Tayeh, inspired by O'Connor's uncompromising spirit. It is set to O'Connor's music and features narration from her memoir Rememberings, and it explores protest, faith, vulnerability, and the courage to defy expectation. The work is performed by a company of ten women with more than five hundred years of collective experience, and it challenges fear around aging while honoring the beauty, strength, and perspective that come with time.

Tayeh is a New York City-based choreographer who earned a Tony award for her choreography of the Broadway musical Moulin Rouge!, and she describes her choreography style as combat jazz, saying it is "[i]t’s staccato, aggressive, and engaged, even when it’s slow. "