Another Christmas staple in Belfast, and some would argue Belfast theatre’s best kept secret, Pony Dance once again put on their Pony Panto to get us all in the mood for Santa’s arrival. Pony Panto is something which truly has to be seen to be believed, it’s dance, variety, live music, but all with attitude. On stage there’s a VIP chair which is filled by a member of the audience “Cara” and over the night she’s given copious amounts of wine, crackers and cheese and even another couple to sit beside. But more about Cara later. The show is one of 2 half’s and is hosted by the irreverent Miss Leonie Pony. The Pony dancers, Emmen Jude Donnelly and NI street crew Ajendance provide most of the craic with their funny, brave and at times breath taking choreography. Emmen Jude Donnelly put on an amazing dance and aerial display to the sounds of Nine inch Nails but with live guitar and 2 Members of Ajendance put on a clinic with their number “The evolution of music” dancing every conceivable style in the space of 4 minutes.
As you can see from the photo above there’s a fair quota of Christmas shenanigans as well, with last years singing sensation Sinnead returning to sing us 2 numbers (she sings the first one first and the second one second) as she plunders the audience throughout to find people to sing along with her and the big words on the screen. The Lords of Strut (who are visiting Belfast with their own show) are our ultimate guests and are impressive and hilarious in equal measure, at this point our VIP – Cara – comes alive and practically makes herself the 3rd member of the dance duo, the guys are cool as cucumbers and work around her, eventually incorporating her to huge rounds of applause, I guess those years of street performing really paid off!
Pony Panto is a great laugh and a brilliant end to any Christmas night out, the guys usually have a summer show as well so until then I’ll leave you with the immortal lines of Sinnead and say “Meddy Christmas!”
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