JOYN Dance Crush #1

Dance Crush #1 is a 31 minute Dance Video lead by Heather Stockton.  Unfortunately, she is another instructor that does not have a bio on the Joyn site.  Heather is as cute as the giant button earrings she is wearing.  She is bubbly and my guess is she is a dancer as evidenced by her fluidity and ease in movement.  She is enviable for someone like me who has a hard time being coordinated.  She mentions she is in Oakland so I'm guessing California and her studio-space is hippie-licious.  My guess is she is filming in a home environment and it may be during COVID.  The comments are less than a month old and this is November of 2020.  She says "let your personality really shine" at moments during the video and I have to say her personality does shine.  

According to the website: Dance Crush is a three part series that ranges from beginning, intermediate, and advanced. Each level will include 8 classes that explore rhythmic movements, flow, and expression in ways that are accessible for the level & progress with each class. You will groove, sweat, and joyfully dance your way into a big crush on yourself.

Dance Crush #1 is not one of the free videos.  I only found this one Dance Crush video so far, but hopefully, the other videos in the series are coming soon.  The intent of the video is a warm-up, two-song dance routines, and a cool down.  Her introduction is about a minute, the warm-up is about 5 minutes and the cool-down is about 3 minutes.  I like that she recommends you have water and a towel for the program in the introduction.  No other equipment is needed.  You may like to make your own playlist for this video because I couldn't hear her music very well.  I can hear the instructor clearly but not much music.  It could be fun to do it to your own music anyway!

As a beginner I was surprised to not really break a sweat in this video, nor did I get my heart pumping.  This could be on me because my first time through I was really focused on the dance moves rather than doing them quickly.  I tried but by the time I got faster she would slow down.  I think this will get better with time if I do the video again, know what is coming, and I can just push myself.  The moves are fairly hip-hop with things like air-guitar, arm poses, and hip action.  It was fun.  One commenter stated that the instructor overestimated what a beginner is and that the moves are hard to follow for someone who is not a great dancer.  Luckily we can be bad dancers and still have fun!

The downside is that about 18 1/2 minutes into the video Heather thinks they take a pause in the filming and is patiently waiting for the camera person (Marky?).  This is evident by her hair fluffing and talking to the camera person.  She even swears at one point (not with malice but laughter) which doesn't bother me a bit but I'm sure could turn some people off.  At approx. 20 minutes she starts to put the routine together.  Unfortunately at 21 min 45 seconds it becomes clear she meant for this section to be cut because she makes a misstep in the dance, tells the camera person she missteps and they are going to start again.  She starts again with the same verbiage as she thinks she got a "cut" and "retake."  There are over 3 minutes of standing around on the part of the person trying to get a workout.  A couple comments make note of this as well.  JOYN could use to step it up on this one with editing and again, including their instructor in the bios.  

I would probably check back on this one to see if they clean up the editing and then give it a go.

🕊Peace🕊