How to do the pony dance
Pony Sweat prompts revolutionizes fitness classes during pandemic
A bubbly ball of energy in a crop top, ’80s-style hot pants and platinum mullet, Emilia Richeson-Valiente shakes her hips to the B-52’s’ “Private Idaho” inside a studio space at Live Arts Los Angeles in Glassell Park. Behind her, people follow her moves in joyously chaotic ways — some burst into air guitar solos, while others let out the occasional primal scream.
“Take the patterns of movement you like and f— the rest!” she instructs.
At Pony Sweat, the dance fitness company that Richeson-Valiente created, there’s a distinctly anti-perfectionist vibe. It’s not about technique or hitting every beat or what you look like doing the moves. Instead, it’s about having a safe, supportive community where people can lose themselves in the music and feel all the feels.
“We come and commune here and everything explodes and it’s beautiful,” said Alyssa Aramanda, a participant at a Wednesday class.
Pony Sweat participants, a. k.a. ponies.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Follow-along dance fitness classes — group workouts in which participants need no prior dance experience and simply follow the teacher’s moves — are cropping up in studios across L.A. The accessible format gained popularity during the pandemic. In the safety of their living rooms, garages or patios, people logged on to Zoom and other portals and danced with strangers around the world to help process the loneliness, grief and anger they were feeling.
“So many of us were really having to face ourselves and be alone with ourselves,” Richeson-Valiente told me after class. “Dance fitness was an accessible medicine for people — a way to get out what we were really feeling and experience some joy.”
With Pony Sweat community members (a.k.a. ponies) telling Richeson-Valiente that the online classes were becoming a critical part of their keeping-it-together routine, she and Michella Rivera-Gravage, the company’s operations lead, scrambled to build out the website for a flock of new visitors.
It was important to them that their ponies, some of whom lacked a queer-friendly community in their neighborhoods, could maintain their connections.
While the shift to online classes was no doubt a means of survival, it also changed the trajectory of the movement, propelling the total number of people who have taken a class by 58%. Pony Sweat’s Instagram following has more than doubled since early 2020.
Isaac Prado dances during a Pony Sweat session at Live Arts Los Angeles in Glassell Park.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Richeson-Valiente isn’t alone. As dance instructors took their classes online, many were able to pick up new students from all over the country. “It has been really incredible,” says Clara Siegel, chief executive of Seattle-based Dance Church, which expanded the number of people who had taken its classes from 40,000 pre-pandemic to 144,000 as it shifted back to in-person. Sadie Kurzban, founder of New York-based 305 Fitness, found “two new revenue streams” during the pandemic: a virtual at-home platform and an instructor certification program.
This summer, Richeson-Valiente returned from a Pony Sweat tour to meet both new and longtime ponies from Boston, New York City and Philadelphia. She also made a stop in Littleton, N.H., close to where her family is from.
That was a homecoming of sorts. For Richeson-Valiente, being alone in her bedroom and dancing to music by the Cure and other ’80s artists was her way of dealing with difficult emotions as a goth teen. A self-taught aerobics fan who was inspired by Jazzercise, Zumba and classes at the now-closed Sweat Spot in L.A., she continued to be fueled by dance and often talked about teaching dance aerobics while working Saturday kitchen shifts at a local restaurant. In 2014, her friends surprised her by pitching in to rent her a studio space where she could hold classes. One friend, Noah, helped dream up the name Pony Sweat, for its relation to dance, the queer community and Richeson-Valiente’s propensity to really sweat.
Emilia Richeson-Valiente’s notes for a Pony Sweat class.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“It was, in a way, a reclamation because I had been so ashamed of my big sweating,” she said with a laugh.
These days, Pony Sweat’s mixtape changes every month (at the class I attended, songs ranged from Judas Priest’s “Turbo Lover” to Le Tigre’s “Eau d’ Bedroom Dancing”).
Richeson-Valiente and Rivera-Gravage hope to expand Pony Sweat’s community both online and in person through events, collaborations with other artists and organizations; a community action arm, Ponies Against Fascists; as well as new offerings of “video rentals” and the On Our Own But Never Alone (OOOBNA) monthly dance subscription. They also recently launched a Pony Sweat server on Discord, where ponies can connect with one another when class isn’t in session. Another recent class addition: aural aerobics. It’s a radio class with no visual element — just music and Richeson-Valiente’s vocal guidance.
All of it is evidence that dance aerobics is finally getting the attention it deserves after being dissed for so many years by the fitness community.
“Folks are finally approaching dance fitness like I like to think of it, which is emotive expression,” Richeson-Valiente said.
Emilia Richeson-Valiente leads a Pony Sweat class. “Take the patterns of movements you like,” she instructs, forswearing perfection.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
She calls her dance space “fiercely noncompetitive” and embodies that spirit with every pivot, body roll and booty shake.
“My journey with dance was that it was really difficult for me as a young person and throughout my life to give myself permission to not be good, or to not look like the teacher,” Richeson-Valiente said. “The point of Pony Sweat is for people to discover freedom of movement and expression in their own bodies.”
Pony Dance - Etsy.de
Etsy is no longer supporting older versions of your web browser in order to ensure that user data remains secure. Please update to the latest version.
Take full advantage of our site features by enabling JavaScript.
Find something memorable, join a community doing good.
(363 relevant results)
commands for pony town on the phone
-
ALL TEAMS IN PONY TOWNتحميل
تشغيل
-
Town pony teamsتحميل
تشغيل
-
how to play pony town on the phone commands for movements, etc.
تحميل
تشغيل
-
TEAM EMOTIONS Pony Townتحميل
تشغيل
-
Teams in Pony Town Yes 6 teams in Pony Townتحميل
تشغيل
-
How to write in your mind an interesting type of text in pony town answer from New Love UwUتحميل
تشغيل
-
Pony Town Settings Guideتحميل
تشغيل
-
How to dance in PONY TOWN Answer hereتحميل
تشغيل
-
Pony Town Overview and Teamsتحميل
تشغيل
-
How to play pony town on the phone plus a few commandsتحميل
تشغيل
-
All teams in Pony Townتحميل
تشغيل
-
life hacks for pony town on android phone 1 part training for beginners Pony Townتحميل
تشغيل
-
PONY TOWN BEGINNER HELP GAME CHIPS CHARACTER IN PONY TOWN PONY TOWNتحميل
تشغيل
-
TIPS FOR BEGINNERS GAME PONY TOWNتحميل
تشغيل
-
Pony Town teamتحميل
تشغيل
-
teams for pony town 1 partتحميل
تشغيل
-
Pony Town Teamsتحميل
تشغيل
-
How to learn to dance in Pony Townتحميل
تشغيل
-
Pony Town teamsتحميل
تشغيل
-
1 hour team for pony town O pana met a friendتحميل
تشغيل
Dancing ponies GIF
Skip to content Dancing ponies GIF 100 GIFs with amazing dancing ponies! Funny dancing ponies from the animated series My Little Pony, realistic dancing little horses, cool pony movements on a transparent background and much more.
Download or share GIFs for free!
Click on the GIF to view it in full size, share it or download it
Rarity and Applejack dance in the spotlight another appears at the spot.
A pony dancer was found in the meadows. On the gif - "moonwalk"
pony Azure velor twerks
Fluttershy jumps on a yellow-green background
The main characters of the cartoon "My Little Pony" dance synchronously on a black background.
Applejack jumping gif
Princess Luna is having fun. She has luminous bracelets on her paws.
Rainbow Dash only looks forward
Blackgryphon pony in a white Gangster hat
Rarity jumps on a gray background
GIF where a man in a white bodysuit dances with a horse
Pinkie Pie jumps and smiles merrily
Anthro . She is wearing headphones and holding a guitarTwilight Sparkle is dancing against a purple background
Six friends dancing the cancan
3D ponies dancing in sync in matching black outfits
White horse shaking his head funny
Vinyl Scratch 3d creates holiday music
Rainbow Dash confidently performs the famous "moonwalk".
Rainbow Dash on the dance floor
Ankha My Little Pony dancing in the clouds
The pony walks spectacularly while shaking its mane
Ankha My Little Pony dances in Egypt
Sparkle and Cadence are having a lively chat
Rainbow Dash moves to almost any music
Vinyl Scratch dances to his music
Rarity and Spike are sitting on the hood. GIF in the style of the clip "Pháo - 2 Phút Hơn"
Apple Bloom parodies Michael Jackson
Autumn Flame rejoices, and butterflies flutter nearby. Moment from Kirin's fairy tale
Pinkie Pie winks cute anthro 3D
Pony creation base. Behind her, the stars twinkle against a blue background
Fluttershy shakes her head
Fluttershii waves wings on a transparent background
Portrait gif with a fluttershi on a transparent background
Fluttershy angrily grins on a kick
Flhattershai dancing on the spot on a transparent background of
9000 722 Pinkie PieA trio of ponies sing a good song
Pinkie Pie doing morning exercises outdoors
Black and white Twilight Sparkle runs around happily.
Background transparent
Rainbow Dash is tired of dancing
Mermaid ponies enjoy their carefree days
Four unusual ponies move to the music
Many different ponies dance the same dance
Mermaid pony. Rarity fan dances when Applejack crashes into her
Dance battle continues to songs of Michael Jackson
Black and white Pinkie Pie in a tracksuit against a transparent background
MLP Pacific Glow swings on the dance floor
White-maned pony shakes his head
Rainbow Dash Clone
Twilight Sparkle flaps her front paws. Transparent background
Pinkie Pie dances with her tongue hanging out
Pony Minuette slowly shakes her head and wags her tail against a transparent background
A horse is watching a cheerful pony behind a fence
Everyone is bored while the pony is dancing
Vinyl Scratch moves very fast from 12 price
games where a pony dances well as long as you press the arrows in time
Twilight Sparkle in a dress smoothly twists her paws
Not wanting to cut logs, a pony named Apple Bottom walks away funny
Still from the cartoon "My Little Pony Stories".
Friends applauding a pony named Bright Eyes
A blue pony without a mane and tail jumps on a transparent background "MLP"
Rarity is circling a lamppost, she's having a party
Twilight Sparkle shakes her head like a rocker
Three ponies ride on the American slides
Pinky Pai Enjoy Sunny Days
, a cheerful pink dancing on a simple background
Rainbow poni is actively moving against a transparent background
Blue-eyed pony-gap
9000 Small sweatshirts plays with eyesSatisfied octavia Melody walks briskly
Pony dances Gangnam Style with cool glasses
Twilight Sparkle dances Spanish flamenco. Transparent background
A cute pony with a flower on her ear asks for something
A pink pony makes sudden movements to the beat of active music
A pony with a shiny mane on a transparent background. She squeezed the paws from embarrassment
Princess Celestia performs the dance movements of Kawai
Party at the Ponies in business suits
Fluttershy dances Kawaii Dance against the background of bushes with butterfly 9000 moon with princess moon
Happy pony Fluttershy on a transparent background
The main character of the cartoon "My Little Pony" moves left and right.
Transparent background
Cute dance is now performed by Rainbow Dash.
A GIF where two little ponies say no.
A pony in a costume and with a funny expression. Transparent background
White-maned pony keeps moving under Gangnam Style
Dancing cheers up. So Pacific Glow happily raised her hands up
Rainbow Dash about to run while talking
Rarity wagging her tail
Cute pony jumping cutely against transparent background
Twilight Sparkle uses her horn magic
Pink pony with turquoise mane listens to music and sings along, 1992.
Six ponies ride the car and rock it.
Pink-maned ponies do a dance move with black glasses on a transparent background.
On a white background, a turquoise pony moves her pelvis.
Princess Luna jumps from left to right paw. Transparent background
Pony dancing strangely with crazy eyes on a transparent background
Hot pink pony twerking on a black background
Pinkie Pie dancing on her hind legs in the city
Rarity is acting very cool.
