When Sonya Tayeh saw Moulin Rouge! for the first time, on opening night at a movie theater in Detroit, she remembers not only being inspired by the story, but noticing the way it was filmed.
“What struck me the most was the pace, and the erratic feeling it had,” she says. The camera’s quick shifts and angles reminded her of bodies in motion. “I was like, ‘What is this movie? This is so insane and marvelous and excessive,’ ” she says. “And excessive is I think how I approach dance. I enjoy the challenge of swiftness, and the pushing of the body. I love piling on a lot of vocabulary and seeing what comes out.”
Flash forward to a couple years ago, when director Alex Timbers hired her to choreograph Moulin Rouge! The Musical, drawn to exactly that sensibility. “What’s unique about Moulin Rouge! is that it’s a genre hybrid,” he says. “The show wants someone who can bring the worlds of Broadway, pop spectacle and really inventive storytelling all together, and she can mold all of those.”
Read the full story at Dance Magazine.
Photo by Jayme Thornton, via Dance Magazine
