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. A Joyce Theater Production co-produced by Factory International, The Surge will have its world premiere later this month at Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, in Manchester.
Fierce, unflinching and deeply human, The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor channels the raw emotional force, restless spirituality and radical honesty that made O’Connor one of the most singular artistic voices of her generation. The work, performed by an all-female company of 10 dance artists spanning several decades in age and more than 500 years of collective lived experience, becomes a powerful meditation on voice, protest, womanhood, vulnerability, resilience and the courage to live beyond convention. Set to O’Connor’s iconic music and featuring narration drawn from her memoir Rememberings, The Surge rejects cultural ideas surrounding aging as something to diminish or conceal. Instead, Tayeh places female experience, history, physicality, power and emotional truth at the center of the stage, creating an evening that pulses with urgency, grief, tenderness, rage, sensuality and ecstatic release.
With The Surge, Tayeh turns her attention toward the legacy of 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,” Tayeh said. “These 10 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.”
“Few artists possess Sonya Tayeh’s ability to transform emotion into movement with such immediacy and force,” said Linda Shelton, Executive Director of The Joyce Theater. “The Surge is moving, searing, fearless and deeply human. We are thrilled to partner with Factory International on this extraordinary project and to welcome the work to The Joyce for its North American premiere and could not imagine a more powerful way to launch our Fall/Winter 2026–27 season.”
Factory International Artistic Director and Chief Executive John McGrath said, “We’re delighted to be collaborating with The Joyce for the first time and incredibly proud to be working with Sonya Tayeh on this visionary work. Through her life and music, Sinead O’Connor influenced a generation of people; The Surge is a powerful, honest and heartfelt response to the impact she had on the world and the people she moved and inspired.”
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.
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