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