In this conversational interview, JJ Virgin and a co‑facilitator discuss why adults need intentional movement experiences, especially dance, to spark ideas, break cultural conditioning, and access deeper states of joy and connection. They describe how Western societies (U.S., Canada, UK) often teach people to stay still and self‑monitor, creating shame around bodily expression, whereas many other cultures treat dancing as a natural, non‑judgmental response to music. The speakers outline practical facilitation methods for group settings: establishing three agreements (full‑play, non‑judgment, safety), using curated playlists or nostalgic top‑10 songs, incorporating drumming, and employing the "dance of release"—a shaking exercise that mimics animals shaking off water or trauma to release tension and activate happy hormones. They also share personal anecdotes about how movement fuels creative thinking for JJ and how joy is woven into the facilitator’s identity, reinforcing the message that joy, movement, and mental clarity are interlinked. The dialogue offers concrete tips for individuals at home (choose music, close the door, move for a few minutes) and for leaders running workshops (set agreements, create a love‑zone, use music as a dance partner).
Chapters
I don't know. I think we're all born to move. I know I, I've, I have never, and I can say never, I've never come up with an amazing idea sitting at my desk. It's never happened. And yet, you know, like, we were out yesterday walking out in beautiful— where we live, we have the longest walking street on the water. And of course, idea, idea, idea. I used to go rollerblading in Fort Lauderdale around the water. Ideas. I had to always carry things with me at the gym. I did. Anytime I'm in moving, I get these ideas. Now, we've brought Transcend Dance into the Mindshare Health Business Growth Community. I always bring dance in, as you've noticed. I always bring dancing because I feel like as adults we don't get to do it. It's like, first of all, I'm not 20, I'm not going to a club in a miniskirt. Like, I'm not doing it. So there's just not that many opportunities, right? So I make sure at my events we always have dancing. And then we brought in Transcendence as a way to get people kind of prepped when they were going to do some really big thinking, thinking stuff. Now you watch people, because I remember at first kind of watching people going, all right, how, how are these things going to land? Because people are so self-conscious. Now you get to be an adult and all of a sudden you're like, oh, oh, I don't know, I can't, what if someone sees me doing something stupid? So, yeah, you know, and it just, it strikes me that we build up a lot of just shyness or shame or what around moving in our bodies. So how do you get someone to break through that and be able to do this? Because even just standing dancing, people, you watch people, they have to either have a couple drinks in them, right?
Well, JJ, it's cultural. So what I love about having— and I know you've been around the world too, so I know you can speak to this as well, but wouldn't you agree that it's very much our US, maybe Canadian culture?
Yeah, I'd say US, Canada, and the UK.
UK, exactly, exactly, right? So, but the rest of the world, they got it going on. Like, you go down to— my husband's from Mexico City. You go down to Mexico, you are expected expected as a male. It— they— nobody cares if your moves look at all good. Like, it is a cultural expectancy that you are— anywhere there's music, everybody's just moving and nobody's looking at anybody. So part of it is— and same thing in Africa and all these different other cultures all over the world—
and I love that no one was looking. I remember when I lived in Japan for a while and everyone would go dance at these nightclubs and they dance to the mirror. I go, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. No one's dancing with each other. They're all dancing in the mirror." It's so good.
Yeah. And if we go back, literally tribal times, we would circle around the fire and we would sing and drum and dance. In tribes, they would actually welcome the warriors from war, right, from their battles to drumming and music and dancing and shaking as a way to integrate. Imagine that. I mean, like, I could go on and on. So really it is a cultural thing. And I have learned to be just highly compassionate and sensitive that particularly in this Western culture, not only have we been programmed to sit down, be quiet, stop scream, dreaming, stop wiggling in your chair, like just like bottle it up, right? And don't make a peep. So I mean, when I come into these conferences, people are very well trained in our educational system. They're sitting, they're very still when there's a part of all of us inside that just wants to go, ah, you know, like I just wanna make a sound, you know, but we're very well programmed. So to give people this like, space where, okay, for 5 to 10 minutes, all the rules get to be broken. Like we get to hoot and holler a little bit. We get to kind of shake our bodies. And it's all about just creating safety. So A, making sure people realize this is a non-judgment zone. So there is no right or wrong way. This isn't about moving any specific way. This is really just letting off some steam, shaking off the tension that we're holding on in our bodies and just having a little fun, letting that inner child out to play just with those 3 agree— I call them our agreements, you know what I mean? We're all going to look around and agree that A, we're going to play full out. That's the first one. Because if I forget that one, oh man, there's always those 3 people right in the front row with their arms crossed and they're like, oh yeah, no, I don't think so. So before I tell them what we're going to do, I've learned the hard way over many, many decades of leading large groups of adults into this that you got to get agreement. That everyone's gonna play full out, then that this is a safe zone, non-judgment, we're gonna play. And then once everybody goes, "Oh, I could play by those rules and I'm not gonna get judged," 'cause we've all agreed that we're not judging, this is a love zone, "I can do this." And then it's like, oh my gosh, people come up to me and they're like, "I haven't felt that free and that amazing and that like unlocked and unleashed in a really, really long time. I want more of that." What can I do to have more of that?
Yeah, and you did this with a group of mainly doctors. So as I'm getting ready to do this, I'm like, this is gonna be interesting. Let's see what happens here. And they loved it, loved it. And I looked around, I go, everybody is completely in this one to win it. They are in it. So how do you have someone like— because in the moment, I mean, we were just being guided and you felt completely connected, but someone at home who goes, okay, I would love to do this. How do they, how are they able to get into that deeper connection?
Yeah, I think the music, honestly, JJ, is such an important, it's like a, it's like a dance partner. You know, if you think about, if you've ever like had any kind of experience on the dance floor with somebody that's kind of in flow versus like you just somebody that's leading, like a really good song. So for a moment, If possible. Now, I know some people really need a lot of help with music, and they're like, I have no idea what song— what song would you play? You know? And so we've got lots of playlists. I'm sure you have music that you could share.
I think you're also going to give everyone a little— you're going to give everyone a taste. So if you're listening, yeah, I got nothing. Is it Bruno Mars? You know, we'll get you a thing.
Well, if you think about high school, so one way you could do this was— was— is you can look up either Google or ChatGPT or whatever you use as a search, you know, Google your year you graduated high school or whatever you call it, 'cause I know not everybody calls it high school depending on where you are in the world, right? But that year you graduated, you know, from your primary, you know, years of study, what were, like, what were the top 10 songs that decade? And chances are one of those songs will be, and you could say top 10 dance songs could be super helpful, and one of those songs will ignite some sort of joy in you. That could just be one way to go about it. Then you play that song and you listen. If you need to close the blinds, close your door, or like close the bathroom and like lock the door and just close your eyes and let yourself loose, you know, then you start there and just tell yourself, I'm just gonna move even for 2 or 3 minutes and I'm just gonna let whatever comes out come out and just experiment with it is part of what you, how you begin. Another really easy way is drumming. I know that sounds like, wait a minute, drumming? So if you just, you can go to Spotify or Apple Music or whatever and just Google African drumming and note just even a few minutes of that. And what I love is to pair drumming with one of the 10 stages of transcendence is called the dance of release. Now this isn't new, I've just given it a fun name. If you watch a dog, after it gets a bath, what does it do? It shakes all the water off, right? Or if you watch a zebra being chased by a lion, if it doesn't get eaten, it will play dead. And then as soon as it doesn't think it's in danger, it'll stand up and it'll shake its entire body to shake off the trauma. So it's literally like you imagine shaking your body like an old dusty rug, or a dog shaking water, and you shake your body. It is It's so rejuvenating. It releases so much tension. It activates those happy hormones. Even just a few minutes can be really— it's like that one of those exercise snacks, JJ Virgin. But it activates mind, body, and spirit in such a powerful way.
So you brought up joy like 10 times now. How does joy fit in here?
Yeah.
It's your middle name, right? Or did you—
It is my middle name.
Really your middle name?
It is really. Do you want to know, like, I'm— you're asking. So my mother was going to call me Star, and, um, which is an interesting middle name too, which I think is lovely. And she had had two boys, my older brothers John and Rich, who also work in our institute, which is super cool. It's a whole family business. But she just had this emotional and spiritual connection with me long before she got pregnant with me. She says, "John would've been Jennifer.
Rich would've been Jennifer." I was supposed to be Jennifer, by the way.
Were you? Oh, I love that. I love that. Yeah. So anyhow, when I was finally born, she says she was filled with so much joy that she changed, like when she went to write my middle name down on the birth certificate from what it was originally gonna be to Joy.
