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Groundworks Dancetheater

"Pony" evokes smiles with its whimsy and heart pangs with its emotional honesty. — Dance Magazine

Sienna lift Claire, fully horizontal
Sienna watches as Claire balances lemons all over her body
Sienna and Erin place lemons on Claire as she dances

Pony

Pony is an absurd, nonsensical, useless coping mechanism for the moment. It’s a question about how we start and end (or if we ever end). It’s a reintroduction to touch. It’s a life sentence to a self help seminar designed for everyone and helpful to no one. It’s a blanket statement. It’s an entry point. It’s an essay with a beginning, middle, and no end. It’s helpful if you think of the work as a door you can go through. It’s permission to work really hard and not get there (or end up somewhere else entirely). It’s about being inflexible but learning to change. Pony was commissioned and performed by GroundWorks DanceTheater.

Choreographed, written, and directed by Hannah Garner

Additional writing/script generation from Runako Campbell

Performed by: Runako Campbell, Nicole Hennington, Annie Morgan, Jacob Nahor, and Channce Williams

Dramaturg/Consulting Director: Ann Noling

Director of Photography: Darby Irrgang

Editor: Colleen McLaughlin

Sound Editor: Kevin Etherson

Colorist: Prannoy Jacob

Costumes: Janet Bolick with Hannah Garner

Lighting designer: Dennis Duggan

Location: Ingenuity Labs, Cleveland, Ohio

Music: Everybody Loves My Baby by The Boswell Sisters, Infomercial Music by Sean McVerry, Stabat Mater: 12. Quando Corpus - Amen composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and performed by Dame Emma Kirkby, Christopher Hogwood, the Academy of Ancient Music & James Bowman, and The Beatitudes composed by Vladimir Martynov and performed by Conspirare & Craig Hella Johnson

Premiere: virtual premiere on April 24, 2021

Length: approx 20 minutes

We acknowledge that this film was conceived, created, and shot on the stolen, unceded land of the Mississauga, Eerie, and Kasskasskia people. We honor and respect the diverse Indigenous peoples’ connection to this land and acknowledge the painful history and ongoing nature of genocide and forced removal.

Photos: still from film shot by Darby Irrgang