Pony Team

 

Emilia Richeson-Valiente

she / her
Creator / Director

I am a performer, dancer, writer, and emotive aerobics facilitator. Originally from WI and VT, I moved to LA in 2006 to follow my dream of becoming Weetzie Bat. I earned a BFA from Emerson College, and am an AFAA certified aerobics instructor. I’ve choreographed dance aerobics routines for the music videos of Alice Bag, Hayley Williams, Gal Pals, Shark Toys, and Wallows. I've performed my work at Weirdo Night, SORORITY, and many punk shows. I live in Los Angeles with my wife and pup! Listen to my aural aerobics show on beloved LA Radio station Dublab!

This aerobics practice is influenced and inspired by my dance and movement teachers throughout my life.  I am grateful for the teachings of Marilyn from Casa, Dandha da Hora, Sarah Hickler, Jacque Mckay,  Karen Quick, Kat Krafel,  Luisa Frias, Agatha French, Jillian Szanfranski, Ryan Heffington, Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons who have inspired and encouraged me to stay with my body.

photo credit: Rebekkah Drake

 

Michella Rivera-Gravage

she/her
Artistic Producer/Pony Operations Lead

I am a multimedia producer/director dedicated to working with compelling stories that ignite and cultivate. I have produced evocative moving images, interactive media and participatory projects. I work with a variety of artists, nonprofits and innovative businesses to manifest their best digital selves. I earned my MFA in Digital Art/New Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Pony Sweat changed my life and I am dedicated to seeing her flourish.

photo credit: michella

 

Isabel Osgood-Roach 

she/her
Social Media Manager

I am the social media manager for @ponysweat, an artist whose medium is painted & dyed clothes, and a freelance consultant working with artists and small businesses to develop digital content and community. In 2019, I founded Queer Mall, which is a pop-up event series in Los Angeles. I grew up in Portland, Oregon and moved to LA in 2009 to attend college in Eagle Rock. I had the privilege of attending the first ever Pony Sweat class at Live Arts in 2013! I have a BA in Critical Theory & Social Justice from Occidental College and an MA in Early Childhood, Inclusive Education, Curriculum & Instruction from Portland State University. After short stints in New Haven and Paris, My partner and I moved back to LA and currently live in Glassell Park.

photo credit: Zoe Walsh

 

Jaquita Ta’le

she/her
Teacher

A lifelong Angeleno and 3rd generation artist, Jaquita Ta’le is a co-founder and co-creative director for the emerging theatre company Bottle Tree Theatre. She recently marked her directorial debut with “I Sell Windows”, a one woman show with puppetry (Outside In Theatre/Bottle Tree Theatre, Assembly Festival- Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024). While training at NYU Tisch’s Experimental Theatre Wing, she also studied spoken word performance and poetry at Johannesburg’s University of Witwatersrand and modern, folkloric, and experimental dance in Havana, Cuba. Acting credits include: (Theater) The Heal (The Getty Villa), Too Heavy For Your Pocket (Sacred Fools), (Little Children Dream of God (The Road Theatre), And Then They Fell (Atwater Village Theatre),  (Film/Television) Pinocchio, Good Behavior, Castle, Shameless, Criminal Minds, ER. As a DJ under the moniker “Eartha Littt”, Jaquita’s spun at venues like The Line Hotel, The Beverly Wilshire Hotel, The Montalbán, The Craft Contemporary Museum, Space 1520, and Los Globos.

photo credit: Rebekkah Drake

 

Malia Ma

She/Her
Teacher

A lifelong contemporary and butoh dancer, bodyworker, heteroflexy sex-positive queer ally and licensed somatic psychotherapist, Malia Ma returns to teach Pony Sweat Aerobics after 25 years away from the fitness industry.  Starting in 1987 using a cassette tape, Malia taught aerobics in college and will revisit actual songs used on that playlist in her first month as a Pony Sweat teacher. Malia holds a degree in dance performance and dance ethnology from Hampshire College and the Five College Dance Program in Amherst Mass, which she followed with Laban Movement Analyst certification at University of Washington.  In the 90s, Malia was a dancer/assistant director with Iona Contemporary Dance, and cut her teeth in the underground drag, performance and rave scenes with Giinko Maraschino and the House of Chandelier at Fusions Waikiki. Fusions,formerly Waikiki’s punk club 3-D in the 80s where Malia explored her New-Ro, Ska Post Punk Goth roots. In LA and SF, Malia has performed with Dream Circus Theater, Somavox, Corpus Delecti and Mystic Family Circus in the 90s-aughts. Malia has more costumes than clothes.  A proponent of fuck the moves, Malia will incorporate somatic embodiment practices with dorky jazz-punk routines into her class.