Sonya Tayeh

Who is Sonya Tayeh?

Sonya Tayeh is a dance teacher and jazz and contemporary choreographer. She is best known for being a choreographer on the television series So You Think You Can Dance. In 2013, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on season nine.

Tayeh grew up in Detroit, Michigan and was a house dancer during her teenage years. She did not start any formal dance training until she was 18 and a student at Wayne State University. After graduating in 2002, she moved to California and ran a dance company in San Francisco where she developed her own style of choreography called combat jazz. In 2007, she was discovered by a talent agent from McDonald Selznick Associates who saw a performance she choreographed for The Carnival: Choreographer’s Ball. Three months after being signed, she booked a job on So You Think You Can Dance.

Since gaining mainstream exposure, she has choreographed for Madonna, Florence and the Machine, Kylie Minogue, the Los Angeles Ballet, and the San Jose Reperatory Theater. She is very active teaching at dance studios and conventions.