Sonya Tayeh Reflects on Aging, Spirituality, and Grief With The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor

Sonya Tayeh is developing a dance work titled *The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor*, featuring dancers over forty, set to the music and writing of Sinéad O’Connor. The project premiered in Manchester, England, and will be performed at the Joyce Theater in New York City from September 16–27. The work aims to offer intimate portraits of performers through a collective expression channeled by O’Connor's music. Tayeh was inspired by her admiration for Sinéad O’Connor, particularly during a period of personal grief, and sought to connect this experience with the lives of women over forty. She selected musical influences from O’Connor’s recordings and her memoir, *Rememberings*, seeking themes related to identity, spirituality, and grief. The artistic process involved exploring questions about social constructs, personal identity, and inherited wisdom experienced by women in later life, focusing on the interconnectedness of spirituality, joy, rage, and identity crisis within the context of aging.

*The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor* premiered at Factory International in Manchester, England, and will be at the Joyce Theater in New York City from September 16–27. Sonya Tayeh developed the project featuring dancers over the age of 40 set to music by Sinéad O’Connor. The inspiration for the project involved personal grief following Sinéad O’Connor's passing. Song selection was guided by listening to O’Connor’s music and her audiobook, *Rememberings*. Themes explored in the work include spirituality, grief, and identity.

The artistic process appears driven by a tension between inherited cultural symbols and the lived experience of aging, particularly concerning imposed social identities versus personal autonomy. The focus on themes of spirituality, grief, and identity suggests an exploration of how collective wisdom interacts with individual psychological fragmentation during later life. The desire to find a "braiding" rather than separating conflicting emotions like joy and rage mirrors a larger societal tension regarding the rigid expectations placed upon individuals, especially artists, as they navigate shifts in societal positioning. The commentary on the experience of aging—where potential is constrained by external constructs—suggests a pattern where personal agency is often mediated by systemic pressures related to age and established roles. The observation that older women feel constrained in their choices, contrasted with the artistic quest for freedom, points toward an underlying critique of how societal structures limit self-determination as individuals mature. The surprising finding regarding the desire for physical longevity amidst this struggle suggests a counter-narrative where corporeal experience is simultaneously mourned and re-claimed as sacred space.