Sonya Tayeh

Sonya Tayeh is a dance teacher and jazz and contemporary choreographer from Detroit, Michigan best known for being a choreographer on the television series “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Tayeh was a house dancer during her teenage years and 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 which she calls combat jazz. Soon 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, Tayeh has choreographed for Madonna, Florence and the Machine, Kylie Minogue, the Los Angeles Ballet, and the San Jose Reparatory Theater. Aside from theater and tours, she stays active teaching jazz and contemporary classes at dance conventions.

Tayeh was named one of Dance magazine's "25 to Watch" and was honored by the Detroit Arts Council. At Wayne State University there is a scholarship named after her called the Sonya Tayeh Endowment Fund that is awarded to students who want to pursue a degree in dance.

In July 2013, Tayeh was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for "Possibly Maybe", "Turning Page", and "Sail"—three routines she choreographed on season nine of “So You Think You Can Dance.” At the 2013 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, she joined the other seven choreography nominees and created a routine honoring dance that was performed just before the Outstanding Choreography award was presented.