THE SURGE: AN ODE TO SINEAD O'CONNOR to Open The Joyce's 26/27 Season
Performances will run September 16–27 in The Joyce Theater’s Tino & Rajika Puri Auditorium.
Following a world premiere at Aviva Studios in Manchester, The Joyce Theater Foundation will present the North American premiere of The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor, a powerful new dance work conceived, choreographed, and directed by Tony Award-winning artist Sonya Tayeh, from September 16–27 in The Joyce Theater’s Tino & Rajika Puri Auditorium, opening The Joyce’s 2026–27 season.
At its center is an extraordinary all-female company of ten dance artists whose more than five hundred years of collective lived experience bring a striking depth and physical power to Tayeh’s choreography. Set to O’Connor’s iconic music and featuring her own voice through passages from her memoir Rememberings, The Surge brings the lives and experiences of these women into dialogue with the raw emotional force, restless spirituality, and radical honesty of one of the most singular artists of her generation. In a work about voice, protest, womanhood, vulnerability, and resilience, Tayeh places female experience at the center of the stage, celebrating the history, sensuality, strength, and freedom that come with having lived.
With The Surge, Tayeh turns her attention toward the legacy of Sinéad O’Connor, an artist whose voice and defiance reverberated far beyond music. O’Connor’s fearless commitment to truth, her refusal to conform, and the aching emotional immediacy of her work become both foundation and catalyst for an evening of mesmerizing dance that moves between vulnerability and defiance, intimacy and rebellion, ultimately celebrating the freedom found in living authentically.
“From the beginning, I wanted The Surge to be carried by women whose lives and experiences could not be separated from the work itself,” creator Sonya Tayeh said. “These ten extraordinary artists span generations and artistic backgrounds, bringing an immense depth of humanity into the room every day. Working with The Joyce Theater and Factory International, and developing the work at The Joyce’s New York Center for Creativity & Dance, has been profoundly meaningful. After premiering the work in Manchester this summer, sharing it with audiences at The Joyce for its North American premiere feels especially powerful. Sinéad O’Connor’s fierce, vulnerable, spiritual, and uncompromising voice was a constant presence throughout our process. Her courage challenged us, her humanity moved us, and her artistry continually reminded us to pursue truth without compromise.”
The company for The Surge includes Betsy Cooper, Alison Clancy, Gabrielle Malone, Mor Mendel, Amy Miller, Jennifer Nugent, Karine Plantadit, Lisa Race, Monique Smith, and Jin Ju Song-Begin, with Lauren Gerrie serving as understudy.
The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor features music by Sinéad O’Connor; lighting and scenic design by Tom Visser; sound design by Marc Cardarelli; associate choreography by Jenn Freeman; costume design by Márion Talán de la Rosa; associate costume design by Mieka van der Ploeg; and rehearsal direction by Jenn Freeman and Lauren Gerrie.
