Hey Ponies! How are ya? How’s your heart? It’s been a very tough 24 hours in the fierce-flamboyant-musicians/artists-who-changed-the-world-for-the-better category. Thank you for all the joy & radical permission you brought us, Dolly Parton & Tim Curry. We sure do miss you already </3
Mister Rogers’ show 1985
“I’ve struggled enough in my life to be appreciated and understood. I’ve had to go against all kinds of people through the years just to be myself. I think everybody should be allowed to be who they are, and to love who they love. I don’t think we should be judgmental. Lord, I’ve got enough problems of my own to pass judgment on somebody else.” - Dolly
I hope you’re giving yourself space to just feel and be sad, and have so much tenderness for yourself. Dancing or any form of gentle movement often helps, too.
Today I’m delighted to share with y’all a Teacher Feature from Malia, who wrote a lil Pony love letter for us all —
Malia in Iona Pear opening for Bikini Kill at Pink’s Garage in Honolulu
Ponies!
As some of you know, I spent my first seven years as a Pony fucking the moves with my inner teenager in the back corner of the room. She needed to freak the fuck out and scream into the sweaty warehouse void every week. Even now, parts of her—and other aspects of me—still pop out when I am teaching and taking classes. The permission to embody all of that as a Pony has been life-saving.
I have also discovered that it is completely okay to share my life as a therapist, my history of sex work, bodywork, performance art, my dancer identity, and now, my pansexual nature through dancing. “Girls and Boys” and “Boys of Summer”, in my July Mixtape are places where I could let some of that leak out. I love Pony for gently encouraging embodied self-discovery in all its forms—for me, through slutty punk outfits at age 59, and for all of us, in those moments when some unexpected burst of self-expression suddenly pops out in the middle of the room. I am so moved when I see that happen in you, Ponies.
This month, dancing to L7 means so much to me. Back in Hawaii in the early ‘90s, I once interviewed L7 for a local zine. Yes. A real stapled paper zine. They were kind, tour-exhausted, transparent, and raw with me. It was one of the first times I experienced unapologetic feminism at a time when grunge dudes dominated the landscape.
Jennifer Finch’s passing hit me deeply. I found out about it on my way to the Viper Room to see Pony Turbo’s band, Skanks with Knives. It was a kick-ass fucking show, and it also gave me chills to recognize that a changing of the guard was happening. L7, and so many of the other bands we dance to in class, paved the way for emerging punk bands like Skanks. Go see them. And Ponies: invite me to your gigs. I live for it.
Around the same time as my L7 encounter, I was hired with my friends to open for Bikini Kill. We were doing radical butoh performances, which the promoters apparently preferred to the lackluster boy garage bands around town. I don’t blame them. We danced as a nearly naked menstrual event before one of the most important bands of our time. I giggle inside whenever I have a Bikini Kill song on the mixtape.
Malia’s archival photo of Bikini Kill at Pink’s Garage, epic <3
So, Ponies, all this to say: Every class is an opportunity to embody your many identities in whatever way you and your body choose. Whatever part of yourself has been waiting for permission, I hope Pony gives it more room to bloom.
I love you, Ponies. I mean it. See you on the dance floor.
P.S. (this is Isabel) again - dance with Malia Wednesdays at 10:15AM at Pickle Factory!! AND if you’re not in LA, you can dance with her aforementioned July mixtape via rental or subscription HERE!!!
P.P.S. I found an awesome full performance of Bikini Kill at Pink’s Garage in 1992, slide to 48:53 to hear them introduce themselves. Kathleen Hanna: “Hi. Liberated from the cage. That was a metaphor, I hear they have gogo dancers here in this cage here sometimes. Well fuck you. Well fuck you. Let’s put some men in the cage where they fucking belong. Yeah yeah yeah. All girls to the front, I’m not kidding. All guys, be cool for once in your lives. Go back, back…” She then proceeds to say if any girl/woman at the show feels uncomfortable or harassed she can come sit on stage with them or even get up on stage, TAKE THE MIC, and point out the offender. Damn!
Somehow it’s already the end of August, sigh. Idk Ponies, everything feels so heavy! But we keep going and keep dancing. Today one of my favorite people in the whole world, my Grandma Lois, turns 93 and my dad reports that she’s eating lobster. So that’s pretty special. And yes, she’s a fan of Pony Sweat!
She loves a cemetary (Nov 2025, Massachusetts!)
Tomorrow we have class with Jaquita! It’s the last week of August mixtapes. August mixtapes have been very fast (fuck the moves), high energy, and cathartic, in my opinion. Somehow Jaq and Malia knew we needed to dance to Firestarter and Emilia intuited that Bad Bunny would be just the ticket for Leo season. Bless!!!
Did you guys know that if you’re a paid subscriber to our Substack we send SNAIL MAIL WITH RISO PRINTS?! I know! All thanks to Michella! We are also starting to paywall Letter Club Substack reflections from Emilia bc she’s worth the money, honey. Last week she wrote about the art of the mixtape at Pony Sweat and beyond, why we use MixCloud & more. It ends with:
“My August 2026 mixtape is about being in relationship with each other! Our desperate need for connection, our fear of it, and how we try and control that which is wild and mysterious. I’ve loved dancing to it this month and look forward to seeing some of you Across Time + Space on 08/30 @ 10:15AM PT.”
A new month awaits us soon, Ponies. I hope the last days of August are sweet and sticky, or even if they suck someone gives you a hug and that’s the medicine! <3
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.