Choreographer Sonya Tayeh on Expressing Impossible Love and Her Ravishing Moulin Rouge! Dancers

Sonya Tayeh put a shot of adrenaline in the theater season with her electrifying choreography for Moulin Rouge! The deliciously over-the-top musical extravaganza marks the Broadway debut for the dance visionary, who has previously worked with pop stars like Madonna, Miley Cyrus and Florence and the Machine, as well as created Emmy-nominated performances for TV’s So You Think You Can Dance. Broadway.com contributor Matthew Murphy recently gathered Tayeh and members of her high-energy Moulin Rouge! ensemble for a photo session to show off their moves. Before the shoot, we sat down with the in-demand theatermaker (who is also prepping the new musical Sing Street off-Broadway) to hear about her journey from the underground club scene of Detroit to the legit stage.

How does it feel to have this “spectacular spectacular” playing on Broadway?
I feel incredible. I feel inspired. I feel amped and charged and I’m just so happy that people are seeing it and seeing the beauty that it is. The love that’s come our way for this magical, humungous show—it’s just an unforgettable experience for me, as my first Broadway experience. It’s really a wild thing.

There was a lot of anticipation for this musical, and expectations have been exceeded. What do you is the lesson here? [Leading lady] Karen Olivo told us that everyone working on the show really loves the film and wanted to take care of it. Was that key?
It's exactly what Karen said. Each collaborator is ambitious, courageous and has a huge imagination, especially [director] Alex Timbers, and every one of us loves the movie. So, you go into a space with all this excitement, like kids in a candy store. And you’re talking: “Remember this scene?” “Remember how you felt?” And we just kept talking, and just kept pushing each other. I feel like because we were at the same heightened place most of the time, the charge was there, and it just kept driving us. 

Moulin Rouge! is a movie of movement. I remember seeing it on opening day at the Ziegfeld Theatre, and it was constantly moving in a way that was almost uncomfortable for the audience. As choreographer, you had a lot to jump off from.
I love working in excess. So, it was a relief to have this be my first big Broadway production and to have that sensibility—the high-octane, highly physical energy because that’s where my brain lies. I work in excess first, load on a lot, and then I edit accordingly. I felt very welcome inside of [the project], but also incredibly challenged because it’s a feat of a movie. And I wanted that same feeling on the stage, and to work in all genres [of dance] because there are so many genres of music. Then there are the historical elements—like the can-can and the tango, which could be incorporated, but with my twist inside of it. 

It’s so emotionally charged as a story. And then so much of the dance is emotionally charged.
Yeah, we got to express what sexual attention looks like. What impossible love looks like. What secrets look like. All physicalized. I’m really lucky.

How do you gather an ensemble of dancers to tell your story? 
I knew when we started building the vocabulary that it was going to be a big responsibility and that I had to find people who had fire and discipline to be able to execute what the show needs. What it needs, not what I wanted. The show really needed all of that excess and that highly physical energy like the movie. It would be a disservice if I didn’t have that heat constantly lifting on the stage. I could tell right away in the audition process, based on the very difficult phrasing that we created, who could handle it and who wanted to. I remember being in that audition—most of [the performers] onstage right now were there—and it was one of the most memorable auditions I’ll ever have. It was phenomenal—just the sheer talent and excellence that they exude. The sweat and that healthy challenge with their comrades and people they’ve worked with before. I had a really visceral experience during that audition process.

It must be intense when you’re working so hard with a group of dancers giving their all. But is it also fun? What was the collaboration like in the rehearsal room?
Incredibly challenging, incredibly exhausting but also, yes, so fun. I try to keep it open and loving and respectful of one another, but I also thrive on the challenge. We hired these amazing artists who also thrive on that, so it was fun to see where we all go together and to build off them. I walked in with so much stuff, but they were also able to give so much of themselves. What’s been exciting about this process is finding these little bits of individualized energy inside of the piece. Even when they’re in unison, you still see them. Because all walks of life are welcomed at the Moulin Rouge. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t this overly pristine, formal energy. I wanted it to feel like a world of people, a world of righteous people.

I love this quote from your bio: “Tayeh hardly whispers in the movement she creates, she screams.” Now you’re bringing that energy to a multi-million dollar musical and reaching mainstream audiences. So, what’s it been like screaming on Broadway?
[Laughs.] When I found out I got the job, I knew the stakes of the material. I let my ego go all crazy and let the pressure rise and rise and rise. And then I just allowed myself to let it fall. I was hired for a reason, so myself needs to be inside of the piece. It took a while, and a lot of terrible weeks by myself in a space trying to figure it out.

That’s how it starts? You in a room alone with the music?
I got into a space in silence and just start to move around and visualize. I did that first alone with “Roxanne.” The first day, I just kept flashing to all the parts in the movie that struck me, and I just started to speak about it and to move about it. I remember thinking extra hard: “What am I seeing so intensely in my mind right now?” And I wasn’t seeing the actual choreography from the movie, but I remember the slicing sounds and the sweat and the cuts of the shirts in the music. That’s what I wanted that section to look like: those sounds. Then I started choreographing off of that. The word “Broadway” brings expectation and pressure, so I had to really sit back and remember who I am and make sure I worked hard to bring myself to the work. It came from inside of me and inside a really deep, challenging, gruelingly beautiful process.

There is an amazing list of songs assembled for Moulin Rouge! Did you have this ultimate playlist in your phone to find inspiration in the music?
[Music supervisor] Justin Levine did such beautiful work on the show—it’s really just phenomenal. Every time I got a demo, I would scream, “Are you serious?! This is what I get to dance to at 10 in the morning? This is what we’re starting with?” I mean, the opening number is almost 12 minutes long and it’s every party song. It really helped alleviate the stress and brings the fun. Even when it would get really grueling and tiring, I remember just closing my eyes or just turning it up a little bit louder and just saying, “Remember what we’re dancing to!” Remember what this is about—community and Bohemian love and life and pride and all of that together. It gave us such freedom. 

You were not the little girl in the audience of musicals dreaming of dancing on Broadway. Tell me a little bit about your childhood and family.
I was brought up with two incredible older sisters, who have been my biggest fans and biggest inspirations, and an incredible mom. I was brought up in the underground dance scene in Detroit, where my ears heard soul music really young—Aretha [Franklin], the Temptations—all of it was just generating in my household. And then I dove into the early '90s—techno music, house music, and watching that music birthed in this incredible city with so much loss and so much history inside of it. Going into incredible abandoned buildings and having dance parties and looking around at a sea of people trying to understand themselves was pretty profound. I carry that everywhere I dance. And I think that, sonically, all of that intensity and darkness and smoke and history and loss is all encompassing inside the work. I knew I wanted to dance—that dance was in my life. It was like a guarantee. I just didn’t know how to get there right away. But I also knew, looking around, that I loved seeing it. I knew. I wanted to make dance. 

If we took a time machine back to one of those abandoned buildings, were you, like, hitting it hard on the dance floor?
Hard. In just a tube top and those wide legged pants, shoes like this [points to her black boots]. Nothing much has changed actually, minus the tube top! I was by the speaker, tears running down my face, hearing music that made me feel like I was four inches above the floor. And just moving around and understanding, “Oh wow, this is going to be my life.” But also, “Uh oh. How do I do it?” You know, what do you do when you don’t have the route from the beginning? But because I had strong women wrapped around my life, they were like, “If you’re going to do it, study it. And then do it how you want to.” I found incredible professors that taught me the classics and the history. Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp—all my heroes. Especially Twyla Tharp and Martha [Graham]—their convictions and discipline are what drive me. 

Did you have a lot of fire in you?
Yeah, yeah. Passion. I always call it when I’m a maniac in rehearsal. So much passion still. I really love it. I don’t think you’ll ever see me jaded. I don’t know what that is. I’m always excited about it. Tired? Yes. Frustrated? Don’t have the answer? Sometimes failing? Yes, that’s part of it. But it doesn’t pull me into the ground. It just gives me the fire.

You’ve now found a creative home on Broadway. How does it feel to be part of the legacy and the community?
It feels incredible. For me, Broadway came with dancers I’ve known since they were 12 and then strangers that I’m in love with now. I have this incredible village of people that are so supportive of me and I them. I’m just so excited to see what else is there. I’m now holding on so tight to make sure that all I do now is based on that Broadway skill. I want to really hold onto what I know has always been my first instinct, which is to do things that speak to me and inspire me. But having this now and seeing all of that history there is really emotional for me. It makes me want to cry all the time because you just don’t think it’s possible sometimes. Everything came a little bit later for me and sometimes that makes it feel impossible. Every time I walk to the theater and my name is there, I stop for a second. I shake my head and I can’t believe it.

Video Credits:  Producer: Paul Wontorek | Directors: Alexander Goyco & Nick Shakra | Editor: Kyle Gaskell
Photo Credits: Photographer: Matthew Murphy | Producers: Caitlin McNaney & Caitlin Moynihan | Stylist: David Withrow | Hair/Makeup: Nicolette Gold, Morgan Mabry & KeLeen Snowgren | Assistants: Sydney Goodwin & Evan Zimmerman