“Ponydance is a comedy dance theatre company,” McDonagh explains wryly, “on the path to becoming a national treasure and one of the most famous performing companies in the world. We have come a long way since 2005, but we have been focused and hard working. We love each other a lot and laugh a lot and have a clear vision of what we want to do.” The love is certainly obvious when Donagh tells me about her fellow Ponydancers. “Paula O’Reilly is primarily a supreme performer, innately sexy and full of love, and a touch of OCD. She is adored,” she gushes, “sometimes it’s annoying.”
“It’s hard to know where Ryan [O’Neill] is from, because he is so perfectly chiselled and good looking – it’s hard to believe he comes from the sticks in Northern Ireland. He is famous for having the mental stability of concrete and the physical ability of a mental genius, even though he can barely add. Neil is painfully multi-talented and painfully sweet natured. It is impossible to dislike him.” And together with Leonie, these super-humans make up the Irish super-troupe who won the hearts of South Australia’s biggest and brightest. “Winning the [Adelaide Fringe Festival] award was a delight,” says McDonagh, “because we had some stiff competition, and it gives you some kudos when you try to explain to people what you do.”
But what do they do? Probably best described as a fusion of dance and comedy, Ponydance exists to bring wit and anarchy to dance movement. It is edgy slapstick set to excitable music, with more fabulous outfits than you can throw a shillelagh at. Anybody Waitin’? is the newest performance in their quest for world domination. The general concept of the show is to try to find a man for Paula O’Reilly, but obviously with a Ponydance twist. Described as a “50 minute marvel that entertains relentlessly” the show involves a lot of dancing, a lot of comedy and a lot of audience participation – maybe you’ll even end up being Paula’s lucky guy. But that’s all McDonagh wants to give away at this stage.
“I could tell you what people should expect,” she smiles, “but I reckon it’s always better not to have expectations for a show, and then you have a better experience. It’s better to risk it for a biscuit. That said, we didn’t get to the other side of the world for nothing.”
In fact their trip to this side of the world is solely due to the huge success they had here last year. “We did Anybody Waitin’? at WOMADelaide and it went off!” McDonagh explains. “The Ponies were like rock stars at the festival, I think they even signed autographs. So on the back of that response, this show is on tour here now. We are going to the Perth Fringe Festival as well [on this tour], performing in The West Australian Idolize Spiegeltent, and we are doing the full run of Adelaide Fringe, and a few guest spots around the place.”
And while this will be Ponydance’s premiere performance in Victoria, McDonagh has had a taste of the Melbourne dance scene before. “I have been to Melbourne before and loved it!” she says. “There is a huge dance scene there. I spent six weeks there training, going from dance studio to dance studio and I learned loads, in between dropping into clothes shops, eating sushi and catching the tram wondering how far you’d get without a conductor catching you.”
The rest of Ponydance’s year will be as busy as the beginning, with performances booked far and wide. The Ponies may see world domination at last. “After Australia, we go to La MaMa in New York and then some gigs in the UK, then to the American Dance Festival. Later we go to the Christchurch and Taranaki Festival in New Zealand, then back for the Brisbane Festival. Then we’ll chill for a bit and then start launching into a Christmas show in Ireland.” And the list of bookings continues to grow as Ponydance prance their way into the mainstream. “We used to work in terms of one week ahead and that keeps lengthening. Now we work in terms of 12 months ahead. In regards to a long term plan: keep working and making work and sharing work and doing work and workity work work work.”
BY KATE MCCARTEN
