“No doubt they feel empty and incomplete, the loss of their shadows being an outward sign of some loss of substance.”

Galaxy, My Little Pony, episode “Bright Lights,” written by Barbara Petty.

 

Research for the quadruped protagonist is the result of a period of investigation into the visual language of My Little Pony, an American cartoon series broadcast in 1986 and 1987. The signature images of My Little Pony– round forms, insistent symmetries, color symbolisms, an uncompromising preference for joy – reveal an aesthetic as excessive as it is attractive. The ponies, hybrid beings, represent at the same time a construction of animalness and a hypothesis for a vision of humanity, a utopia founded on an economy of sharing and plenty. An imaginary world that lets us see with greater clarity our own reality.

The first half of the performance takes the form of an academic lecture on the series. The text, illustrated by projected video images from My Little Pony, explores the topics most relevant to pony discourse – depictions of sex and gender, the nature of the pony economy, architecture and aesthetics, etc. 

The focus of the lecture gradually shifts from visual observations of the My Little Pony universe to attempts to understand the seriesʼprotagonists through physical imitation. 

These explorations eventually morph into an extended dance, which pushes the endurance of the performer with the repetition of a single gesture. We are invited to consider how the visual information has been taken into the body as we confront the transformation of a once distant relationship to the images into sweat, heavy breath, and exhaustion.

 

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Cast

Conception and Performance Bryan Campbell

Dramaturgy  Stéphane Bouquet

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Production déléguée Météores

Administration, production Charlotte Giteau

Production, touring Sandrine Barrasso

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With the support of

CCN de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon in the frame of FUSED (French US Exchange in Dance) ; PACT Zollverein ; GogolFest ; Movement Research at the Judson Church.

 

Residency 

The Dragon's Egg

 

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Touring

July 2, 2010 – Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon

September 6, 2010 – Gogol Fest – Kiev (Ukraine)

November 1, 2010 – Movement Research – Judson Church – New York 

October 1, 2011 – Festival d’Automne – Théâtre de la Cité Internationale – Paris 

December 1, 2011 – Kunstkomplex – Performancetage – Wupperal (Germany)

February 21-22, 2013 – Beursschouwburg – Brussels (Belgium)

March 24, 2018 – Festival (DÉCA)danse – Théâtre de Vanves

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Photo : ©Ian Douglas