JJ Productions

JJ helped my husband and I learn a swing dance for our wedding. We were both definitely beginners, but JJ was very patient! He was a great teacher and the videos taken during each lesson really helped us during practice– they were a HUGE help! We really had a lot of fun with lessons, and our dance turned out awesome! It was a big hit at our wedding — I will always remember the uproarious applause and shocked smiling faces when we started busting out REAL dance moves. It was a ton of fun and something we will always cherish! Thanks JJ!

We called JJ the Tuesday before our wedding with a «dance emergency.» We had finally gotten around to trying out our first dance and we knew immediately we needed professional assistance! JJ offered to work with us that same evening for a couple hours. He listened to our first dance song, showed us a few options, and took our feedback about what we thought was possible to put together as totally noob dancers with a lot of other stuff going a few days before the wedding. We had another session the next night, and that combined with the videos he made during the sessions allowed us to put together something that really made us feel great during our wedding, and was a total crowd pleaser! He even offered to make time to do more sessions with us, but we had too much wedding stuff going on that week to fit more in. We got a lot of compliments on the dance – we did the foxtrot and incorporated spins and dips we learned with JJ and then a goofy intro and «freestyle» in the middle. We had thought we’d need the DJ to shorten the song, but we made it all the way through and had a total blast! It was also totally fun, both to work with JJ and as an activity to do with your spouse-​to-​be. Now we can go to other weddings and events, and get out on the dancefloor for the slow songs and not just bop around like awkward teens at a high-​school dance! Thanks JJ!

JJ, what can I say, he’s the man. I thought it would be fun to take some dance lessons with my wife before our wedding. This way my wife and I weren’t in the middle of the dance floor just swaying back and forth like it was a middle school dance. JJ was an excellent instructor and has tons of passion for teaching. He taught us a lot of moves and showed us how to include some of our own creative freedom. We choreographed the first first minute or so of our dance and then the rest of the song my wife followed my free styled lead with a bunch of moves JJ showed us. Our first dance was memorable and we had a lot of fun.

Best part of planning a wedding: working with JJ to learn dance technique and choreograph a dance and then practicing at home (with handy videos from JJ that instruct and demonstrate proper form).
JJ worked with us over the course of several months leading up to our wedding at which we wanted to perform a specific dance routine that would be fun and wow our guests. He helped us go from zero formal dance ability to being able to perform our song including dips and spins and even lifts. JJ’s greatest strength is his ability to take a dance move and articulate how to do it in a way that makes something that looks impossible understandable — and therefore practice-​able.
JJ teaches out of his apartment, which means the ‘dance floor’ is on the smaller side, but about right for a standard wedding dance floor. There is also a studio nearby you can rent for a nominal fee, which we chose to do for our last two sessions. During our lessons, JJ was able to quickly recognize our strengths and weaknesses, and cater moves to our strengths while helping us work on our weaknesses. He is a great teacher for multiple learning styles because he explains things verbally, demonstrates the moves for each partner, dances with each partner, and gives you your recorded video for you to practice on your own. Highly recommend.

Do you know how hard it is to find a dance instructor? I didn’t, because I never had to before. But thankfully Unilocal exists and I was able to find JJ.
Our wedding was only a couple of months away, and being jealous of those wedding videos they show on Good Morning America where the wedding party surprises the crowd by doing the Thriller dance, the fiancée and I decided we needed to do something cool for our wedding dance.
Why did we need to do something cool? Because we were going to get married in the Rain Main Suite at Caesars Palace by Elvis and had an amazing Rat Pack style crooner as our entertainment. There was no way we were going to showcase our God-​given dancing for our guests… our dance needed to live up to the rest of the wedding.
After checking out the «big box» dance studios that didn’t seem to fit our style, we fortunately found JJ.
In just a few weeks, JJ worked with the fiancée and me to learn how to dance swing, and helped us choreograph to the song that we would dance to. Were we expert dancers by the end of our lessons? No. But we learned how to swing dance well enough that we completely impressed our guests. I mean, they were floored when they saw us dance. JJ is clearly a magician.
JJ teaches out of his condo off of Union Square. He said there’s parking on the street, but we were fortunate enough to live close enough that we could walk. And since it wasn’t a group lesson, JJ was able to work with our strengths and weaknesses (mostly weaknesses) to ensure we got it right. He was patient with us, with just the right amount of demanding. And he sent us videos of what we learned in each session so that we could watch them to help us practice at home. Who does that? We also went to swing dancing event before the wedding to get comfortable dancing with other people, and you should see JJ dance with other people who know what they’re doing — it was like watching Mikey dance with Heather Graham in Swingers. Crazy!
I don’t plan on getting married again, but if I did, I would get lessons from JJ to help with the dance. Oh, and you don’t need to be getting married to take lessons from him, but that’s usually the excuse the people use to learn how to dance. And he teaches more than swing, but we weren’t about to do the 2-​Step to Sinatra.
Thanks JJ!

My husband and I took dance lessons from JJ for our wedding first dance. He was absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend him! Neither of us had any real dance experience beforehand and we were a bit worried about preparing for our first dance. However, JJ did an amazing job getting us ready for the big day & performance.
We signed up for a full package of lessons and started about a month before our wedding, and went 1 – 2 times a week, ramping up at the end. We were able to do some sessions with 2 lessons (50 mins each) and some sessions with just 1 lesson, depending on how we felt. We met up at his home studio to practice, and JJ began teaching us moves. He was an excellent teacher and was very specific in his instructions. He was able to come up with dance moves that looked great with the music we chose and that we felt comfortable with, and gave us some flexibility in what we wanted to do — but also encouraged us when we were worried. The best thing was that he created a dropbox and took video tutorials of each move and taped us dancing too so we could see how to improve. This was a huge help when it came to practicing at home since we could refer back to the videos whenever we forgot anything. In addition, towards the last week, we were able to rent out a local dance studio to practice for a couple hours. You have to pay separately for this but it’s definitely worth it.
JJ was always so positive and energetic, and his attitude was great. We highly recommend JJ — he was awesome, and we couldn’t have done it without him! Everyone loved our dance at the wedding!

JJ is great!
My wife and I took his classes to prepare for a first dance at our wedding.
Being terrible procrastinators, we started just two weeks before the day of.
Neither of us has done any ballroom and I have no rhythm.
Despite all this, JJ got us into great shape for our dance. It went perfectly!
He gave great individual pointers, gave us video lessons to practice at home, planned out the whole dance, and was very friendly, helpful, and encouraging throughout.

My wife and I went to JJ for lessons after seeing the positive reviews on Unilocal.We couldn’t have been happier! I’m not much of a dancer, but he put together a great routine for us, taught us all the moves, recorded video of them so that we could practice on our own, and did it all in a short time with only a handful of lessons. Our guests (and the wedding band) were totally wowed!

My husband and I took dance lessons with JJ in preparation for our wedding. We had a great time at the lessons, and learned a great dance that incorporated 2 different styles to go with two songs. Our guests were very surprised that we had a choreographed routine, and it was a huge hit! We couldn’t have done it without JJ!

I saw JJ perform in public at various events. I was quite impressed and was immediately drawn to his energy and display of precise, controlled movements and good speed. He made all the movements look simple and as if he was performing effortlessly.
I then took several lessons with him over time in various genres of dance. JJ has quite an extensive repertoire of dances that he teaches from all the way from ballroom to wedding choreography/​dance. He is a great instructor, very precise and clear in his instructions and actions and he expects only the best in return from his students.
I would highly recommend dance lessons from JJ Productions.