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Out choreographer Sonya Tayeh on “So You Think You Can Dance” and gender-bending performance

I was a college student at the very peak of my So You Think You Can Dance viewing. My roommates and I had a weekly ritual of watching the show while drinking sangria made from a box of Franzia, so it was obviously a very high brow affair. I remember that you could count on a few things from SYTYCD: Mary Murphy’s Hot Tamale Train, host Cat Deeley being incredibly charming, and choreographer Sonya Tayeh having the most consistently kick ass performances.

Sonya took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with AfterEllen about SYTYCD, her work, and gender/sexuality in dance.

AfterEllen: Thank you for taking some time this morning to talk with me. First of all, I just wanted to tell you that I’m a big fan of So You Think You Can Dance. I actually knew essentially nothing about dance when I started watching it-and I’m not an expert now-but I just think it’s great that really good and exciting dance has become so accessible to people.

Sonya Tayeh: Yeah, it’s pretty amazing what that show has done for us and the world of dance, you know?

AE: Definitely. Have you noticed a big change in audiences-outside of SYTYCD-since the show has become so popular?

ST: Oh, completely and totally. Like, I’ll be at a liquor store at three in the morning, craving some chocolate and some guy is coming up to me saying how he watches the show with his daughter, and it reminded him of something in his life. It’s just crazy, and that’s what I’ve always wanted to do is make it accessible for everyone to feel something. It’s a universal idea now, which is really, really great, because it’s a really beautiful expression and I think people underestimate it. Or maybe underestimate themselves, thinking they won’t understand it, when it’s just your own individual way of provoking a feeling.

AE: Can you tell me a little bit about your process when you’re working on choreography for the show? Do you start with a concept or do you get inspired by music?

ST: It really depends. It depends on if I’m doing a jazz piece or a contemporary piece, because both energies are different. But because the schedule there is very fast and you don’t know who you get until the night before you rehearse with them, I try to be overly prepared. You have to get your music approved ahead of time and create the concept ahead of time. Then, I’ll have a bunch of phrases set up and it just gets adjusted depending on who I have.

AE: Do you have any favorite routines that stand out from the show?

ST: They all, honestly, have affected me in many ways, but I think this season-because I lost two very dear friends of mine-that was a really big driving force of inspiration for me. So this season felt very different, it was kind of a surge of re-inspiration, of really being aware and attentive of how I’m sincerely feeling. I felt this was the most emotionally driven season for me.

AE: So, it sounds like you really put what’s happening in your life into all your routines, is that something you’ve always done?

ST: Yeah, it becomes a necessity, a form of expression-like crying, you know? I need to express it through dance so it’s a very important driving force for me. And, sometimes, it can be strictly the mechanics of dance, and the passion behind how hard it is, but it’s also very emotionally-based, yes.

AE: Do you have any favorite dancers you’ve worked with over the years on the show? I know that’s probably a tough one.

ST: [laughs] It’s hard, because honestly-and everyone gets so mad at me when I say this-but you really have these powerful moments with them, because this is their dream. I really have had wonderful experiences with all of them. With Cole [Horibe], because we did a play together after his season, we really have a great relationship. Melanie [Moore] is a dear friend of mine, and someone who I work with a lot. Allison [Holker], Ricky [Ubeda]-but all of them! In terms of me working with them later, it’s always been a pleasure.

AE: I’m curious, because you mentioned this a little bit before: I know there are time limitations on SYTYCD, so how do you approach your work outside of the show differently? Obviously, you have much more time, but does your process change drastically? Do you have to deal with a lot of censorship on the show?

ST: They really leave me to my own devices, which is nice. They let me push boundaries and get a lot of hard music approved, you know, things like that. So, I don’t feel censored. It’s a little restrictive, because of the time-you know the piece is only a minute and a half, so it’s a snippet of what I’m feeling and I present it that way. It’s hard to feel finished, but for that purpose I feel a completion. But [outside of SYTYCD], it depends on the job. It depends on if I’m doing a musical, if I’m doing a play, or a concert company- it just really depends on the palate of what the project is about. But, no matter what, it really is based on the present time of what I’m going through in my life.

AE: That’s so interesting. Do you keep any sort of, like, an emotional list of past events to draw from? Or do you live and work in the moment and let just your current emotions drive everything?

ST: I feel very present in my process, yes. I feel like it’s very to the day. I try not to marry a lot of ideas until I get into the space, and I don’t prep until I walk into the studio because I try to be as present as possible. Even when I’m prepping ahead of time, because of time constraints, it always changes based on being in the room with the energy of the dancers. I think my initial approach is-even without music, I’m creating movement and then I press play a million times until I feel there is connective tissue there. There’s been a lot of emotional changes and a lot of things I’m going through which has been helpful [laughs] for all the work I have to do right now. But if it’s a musical or a play and it’s based on a script, the script is very vivid to me. I read it a million times. I connect it to things I’ve gone through in my life, so it turns into being personal.

AE: From an outsider perspective, dance seems pretty queer-friendly, for the most part. Then, there are still seemingly a lot of strict gender roles, especially in the more traditional styles of dance, which creates kind of an interesting dichotomy. Has being out affected your career at all, either negatively or positively?

ST: Well, my journey [laughs] is very interesting. I’m 37 and fell in love with a woman for the first time a year and a half ago. I’d never been with a woman before, until now. But, even so, I would say there’s always been a driving force with my movement with women, which then when people critique my work it’s very, “They’re so masculine.” Or, “It’s so androgynous.” It’s this somewhat strange word usage toward women, when it was just the way I moved. I don’t know why aggression is masculine. I’ve been through a lot in my life, and I express it through my work. [There’s been] this beautiful shift in my life, [but] I didn’t make a big public service announcement, because I didn’t feel that I needed to, because I’m just in love. And I presented it that way, like I do everything else. I just walked in with it. I think it’s always been a through line for people in my work anyway, because of the way women move in my work. I’ve always partnered women in my pieces, men have always partnered men in my pieces. I’ve never felt any constraints, of sorts, in my projects, no. There are also submissive men in my pieces. Which, for some reason, seems so jarring, which I find interesting.

AE: Right, like I said before, there still seems to be this kind of old school of dance, that has strict gender roles. And the man is strong, and takes the lead, while the women just kind of follows. Even in some of the more progressive, non-hetero pairings, if you have two men dancing, a lot of times, it becomes this very macho, machismo kind of battle. Are you seeing a shift even in that, in the non-hetero pairings, that the way they’ve been paired is changing?

ST: I think so. And I think that the way you present it is that you’re standing up for those ideas without having to explain why. You know, some people feel the need to have to explain [two women partnering together]. I’ve never felt the desire to have to explain my process, the way I express, and who I love. So, I don’t put [those explanations] into my work. I definitely feel- you In the environments that I work, I definitely feel that I’ve never had to focus on that. But I do feel a change, yes, I definitely feel a shift of it being more universal, where when men are dancing with men, or women are dancing with women, it’s not a discussion. It just is.

AE: Great, yes. Last thing- do you have any upcoming projects that you’re working on that you’d like our readers to know about?

Yes! I’m working with the Martha Graham Dance Company that premiers at the Joyce February 10th-22nd.

[Sonya then proceeded to explain to me, quite kindly, that having something premiere at the Joyce is a very big deal in the dance world. I’m an uncultured swine, what can I say?]

Follow Sonya on Twitter @sonyatayeh.

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