How to do the ponponpon dance

PonPonPon | Know Your Meme

84,570

Status: Confirmed
Type:: Dance, Song
Year: 2011
Origin: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Tags: japan, music video, fashion, kawaii, kyary pamyu pamyu, yasutaka nakata, kawaisa, decora, amalee, jubyphonic, jespergran, jesleaks, j pop
Additional References: Wikipedia

About

"PonPonPon" is Japanese Artist Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's debut single produced by Yasutaka Nakata.

Origin

On July 20th, 2011, "PonPonPon" was released. On July 25th, 2011, Warner Music Japan released the song's music video, a psychedelic tribute to Kawaisa and Decora culture (shown below). "PonPonPon" quickly rose to the top of the iTunes charts in both Finland and Belgium. On July 31rd, 2011, the song entered Billboard Japan's Hot 100s chart at 72.

Spread

On July 26th, 2012, AmaLee uploaded an English version of "Pon Pon Pon" (shown below, left). The video gained 4.6 million views and 58,000 likes in seven years. On March 20th, 2013, JubyPhonic uploaded another English version which gained over two million views and 30,000 likes in six years (shown below, right).

On June 12th, 2014, YouTuber 331Erock uploaded a video of a Metal version of the song (shown below). The video gained 734,239 views and 23,000 likes in five years.

Ninja's "Pon Pon" Dance

In 2018, Twitch streamer Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins ^[1] began dancing to "PonPonPon" after each day's first on-screen win (shown below).

The dance gained popularity as it was featured in many compilation videos. On September 22nd, YouTuber Red Saint uploaded "EVOLUTION of NINJAS PON PON DANCE" (shown below, left). The video gained over 1,300 views in a year. On December 18th, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon uploaded a clip of Blevins and Fallon doing the "Pon Pon" dance together (shown below, right). The video gained over two million views and 61,000 likes.

On March 2nd, Jespergran uploaded "NINJA – PON PON" full song with Fortnite creative music blocks! (download code: 6219-9064-1856)" to YouTube. This featured PONPONPON in Fortnite. The video gained over 11,000 views in two days (shown below).

That same day, @Ninja ^[2] took to Twitter to thank the creator of the map (shown below, left). The tweet gained 797 retweets and 10,900 likes in two days. The creature @jesleaks (Twitter) uploaded a Ninja's Twitch stream reaction to YouTube (shown below, right).

Various Examples

【きゃりーれんれん】PONPONPON　Full ver.

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Twitch – Ninja

^[2] Twitter – Ninja

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Backup Dancers From Hell: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Note: The first time I watched this thing it scared the hell out of me, seriously. There’s so much going on that they probably need to invent a new line of tranquilizers. But hey, I love a challenge, so let’s see if we can get through this one. Here goes…

We start out with Kyary on a brightly-colored, toy-filled stage, wearing (among other things) a pair of skorts (maybe) with giant eyeballs. She’s striking some kind of pose that indicates either she really needs an unseen teacher to let her go to the bathroom or there was some type of trauma-inducing incident when she tried out for the pep squad. She holds this pose for long enough that we begin to wonder if she may have passed on.

Then we get a close-up of somebody’s ear, where we are presented with the startling image of a blinged-out something (microphone stand? Boy George’s walking stick?) growing out of the anonymous ear. Cut to the next shot, with Kyary snatching this long thing out of the air and then beginning to sing into one end of the happy stick. I guess she’s used to receiving her audio equipment from unnatural places. I’m certainly not.

As Kyary and her amazing outfit cutely warble the opening of the song, we start cutting to tight shots of all the various pieces of rainbow clutter piled all over the stage. (I don’t know why she needs all this stuff around her, but we all have our own personal issues and we really shouldn’t judge. Not at this point, anyway.) Off to one side is a little window where we can see some not-so-cute things flashing by, like human brains and chemical meltdowns. We should probably stay away from that little Drive-Thru of Death.

We also get a quick shot of a giant box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, which will prove to be the only stable and comforting thing about this entire video. You might want to GPS the location of that giant box on your smart phone, because it will soon be the only safe place to run when things get out of control.

Still singing, Kyary performs some intense choreography which basically consists of her tapping one foot or another, waving her hands about like there was something unsettling in her oatmeal this morning, swinging the magic stick like a possible weapon, and making sure we can see her enormous pink plastic boots, which probably weigh more than she does.

Then we get to the chorus. Oh dear God, the chorus.

Kyary has changed into an outfit and makeup ensemble that is vaguely Geisha-like, with some mystifying fruit on her head, but her wardrobe is not the important thing at the moment. Instead, we can’t help but focus on the images of a woman that looks like Tyler Perry as Medea on Mescaline dancing in the background behind Kyary. She’s wearing some pink mess of a dress, sporting a white wig, and shimmying like somebody splashed rat poison on her panty shield. It’s mesmerizing. You. Can. Not. Look. Away.

So, I don’t. Not for a long time, with whole chunks of the video flying by where I barely even glance at Kyary, despite her very energetic attempts to capture my attention with her perky pirouetting and apparent telepathic command of day-glo crap that is flying through the air. It’s just me focused on Medea, stuck in a twisted temporary relationship that is so wrong I don’t wanna be right.

Eventually I remember that Kyary is actually the star of the video, so I check out what she’s doing, which is basically the same routine. She’s alternating her outfits between the original “cheerleader as bizarre pre-schooler” and the “radiation skin-tone” woman who has an affinity for produce on her head. (There’s also something about a pogo stick and psychedelic skulls, but I’ll let somebody else explain that angle.)

When we get to the part where radioactive Kyary has a flock of black birds flying out of her mouth, it’s fairly clear that there is no way I can keep up with everything that is going on in this video, so I can only hit the highlights or this review is going to be 417 pages. (I’m already exhausted and I’m only a minute and half into the video.)

Let’s see. We are treated to giant scissors that probably want to kill someone, bees making honey, a surprising moment when Kyary bends over and lets loose with some cartoon flatulence (really?), a cheese-head routine, a bit where Kyary pretends to be a heavy-metal guitar player for no apparent reason, rude graffiti whooshing toward the camera in a violent manner, something about a unicorn with co-dependency issues, and Kyary’s inability to stop bouncing all over the stage like something got shoved where it shouldn’t have.

Oh, and Madea is all over the place. Obviously the film editor realized he had a breakout hit with that train wreck and he’s prominently shoving Medea at us with a determination that is borderline psychotic. My initial jaw-dropping fixation with her begins turning into a fear-based realization that I may never sleep again. At one point there are roughly twenty images of Medea onscreen, doing everything from line-dancing on a peppermint sun to roping a couple of wild hogs.

Then we get to the hand-clapping routine. Oh dear God, the hand-clapping routine.

This mess involves Kyary and Medea as pep captains, rhythmically slapping their palms together as slices of bread rain down on the various planets where these surreal people live. They are very excited about getting to do so, I’ll give them that, but I have no idea what this means. Especially when eyeballs start appearing on the bread slices, eyeballs which then break free and twirl about the stage as well as tumble out of Kyary’s mouth.

What the hell is happening in Japan these days? Did I miss a memo?

Next we have something to do with brightly-striped tanks driving over everything, Kyary’s head turning into a pulsating glob of pink clay that has more mouths than anything should, a drunken shark, a possible tribute to Carmen Miranda, Medea dancing on the ceiling with more enthusiasm than Lionel Richie ever had, some kinky stuff with donuts, and Kyary riding her disco stick to the probable point of rapture.

But we’re not done. Nope, we also get a carousel from hell, another round with skulls, this time featuring laser beams of death destroying the universe, the violation of a purple teddy bear that was innocently trying to watch Big Bang Theory on pay-per-view, Kyary sporting a fake mustache and then eating it along with an apple, more psychedelia that might have something to do with celestial orgasms, and Kyary insisting on trying to create a signature dance that is simply not going to sweep the country unless marijuana becomes legal.

Thankfully, we finally begin to wrap things up, with just a few final attempts to rupture our brain stem. By this point, Medea has been relegated to a supporting role in that Drive-Thru of Death window, probably after Kyary pointed out a clause in her contract about artistic control and cuteness dominance. But we still get to see some angry fish, more donuts, more conjugal visits with the disco-stick-slash-stick-pony, a quick bit that might be featuring Kyary as Sarah Palin imitating the Russians she can see from her house, and a giant pig that is not impressed with all the excitement and bouncing.

The final shot has Kyary winking at us, fully aware that it doesn’t matter what we think of her. She has 25 million hits on YouTube. Do you?

Click Here to Watch the Video on YouTube.

About the theater - Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theater

As a professional group, it was founded in 1992 with the support of the city administration. The founder and first artistic director of the troupe is choreographer Vladimir Pona.

Over the years of its existence, the theater has created 90 performances, the best works were shown in 30 cities of Russia, as well as in 23 countries of the world. The troupe constantly participates in Russian and foreign contemporary dance festivals. 17 performances of the repertoire were nominated for the Golden Mask theater award - 36 nominations. Twice the theater's works became laureates of the "Golden Mask" in the main competitive nomination "the best performance of modern dance": "Sketches from Life" and "Waiting" (choreographer Olga Pona).

In August 2022, the theater celebrated its 30th anniversary. The troupe consists of 21 dancers, 13 of them are choreographers who create their own performances that are part of the repertoire. The artistic director of the theater is Olga Pona. Director — Marina Kravchuk

2001 | SKETCHES FROM LIFE | the best performance in contemporary dance |
Choreographer — Olga Pona

2003 | WAITING | the best performance in contemporary dance |
Choreographer — Olga Pona

Nominees and nominations

 2022 | Thumbelina | the best performance in contemporary dance | 2022 | Thumbelina | the best work of the choreographer | Olga Pona, Tatiana Kritskaya 2022 | Thumbelina  |  Best Musical Theater Artist  |  Olga Pona 2022 | Thumbelina  |  Best Actress | Tatiana Kritskaya 2020 | Out of sync | the best performance in contemporary dance | 2020  |  Out of sync | the best work of the choreographer | Olga Pona 2020  |  Dandelions | the best performance in contemporary dance | Denis Chernyshov | 2019 | Cardboard | best performance in modern dance 2019 | Cardboard | the best work of the choreographer | Olga Pona, Vladislav Morozov, Rafael Timerbakov, Dmitry Chegodar, Denis Chernyshov | 2019 | Cardboard | job lighting designer | Alexander Skrishnik 2018 | Silk | the best performance in contemporary dance | 2018 | Silk | the best work of the choreographer | Riccardo Buscarini 2017 | Theoretical model of absolute freedom | the best performance in contemporary dance | 2017 | Theoretical model of absolute freedom | the best work of the choreographer | Olga Pona 2016 | Meetings | the best performance in contemporary dance | 2016 | Meetings | the best work of the choreographer | Olga Pona 2014 | Dives and ascents | the best performance in contemporary dance | 2014 | Dives and ascents | the best work of the choreographer | Olga Pona 2011 | Next | the best performance in contemporary dance | 2011 | Next | the best work of the choreographer | Asier Zabaleta | 2010 | A man is a man who has found his own identity | the best performance in contemporary dance | 2010 | A man is a man who has found his own identity | the best work of the choreographer | Olga Pona 2007 | Audrey | the best performance in contemporary dance | Choreographer - Maria Greif 2006 | A bit of nostalgia | the best performance in contemporary dance | Choreographer - Olga Pona 2005 | Does the Queen of England know life? | the best performance in contemporary dance | Choreographer - Olga Pona 2003 | Waiting | the best performance in contemporary dance | Golden Mask Award 2002 | Cinema Mania, or Is There Life on Mars? | best performance in contemporary dance | | Choreographer - Olga Pona 2001 | Sketches from nature | the best performance in contemporary dance | Golden Mask Award 2000 | Do I have you or do I not have you? | the best performance in contemporary dance | Choreographer — Olga Pona

Mask Plus
2012 | Space of options | Maria Greif, Andrey Zykov

Runners

"Running" - a performance of the multiple nominee and twice winner of the national theater award "Golden Mask" of the Chelyabinsk Modern Dance Theater. The creation of this work by the artistic director of the theater, Honored Artist of Russia Olga Pona was inspired by the book of the Polish writer Olga Tokarchuk "Runners".

In her works, Olga Pona often refers to the understanding of various phenomena of modern reality. This time the choreographer explores the phenomenon of the fast pace of life of people living in megacities.

“The pace of life is increasing like a snowball. We are racing into an uncertain future. Higher, faster. Someone moves through time, someone through space. Some travel with a purpose, some without. No one knows where we are: at the point from which we left, or at the point towards which we rushed. And is there something in between? Are there moments of stopping-fading in this endless run through life in order to see the important, to feel close, to hear or pronounce the main words?, - noted in the description of the performance.

In February 2020, The Runners was shown on tour in the city of Münster, Germany, where it received critical acclaim.

Helmut the Clear (Münstersche Zeitung, Münster) : “In this case, aesthetics is a way to counter the fast pace of life. But you can't get rid of it completely. This becomes apparent more than once when the frantic pace seems to interfere with the dance. The main characters get into the complex interweaving of their own arms and legs, and incredible efforts are required to unravel them. However, in the end, they become themselves, and beauty returns to the dance again ... "

Olga Pona — born in Novotroitsk, Orenburg region. She graduated from the automotive and tractor department of the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute, and then the choreography department of the Chelyabinsk Institute of Culture. She became interested in modern dance after attending master classes in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Moscow. She has been working at the Chelyabinsk Modern Dance Theater since its foundation as a teacher and choreographer.