TheDanceFloorPod

TDF- EP.5~ JOSPEH TOBIN

TheDanceFloor Season 1 Episode 5

This episode we are joined by the amazing Jospeh Tobin! He has one of my favorite voices of the series and I know you will also enjoy his tone! Bringing a different vibe in the dance as we take on some contemporary, it was such a seamless process. This dance creation was the fastest of the series and truly a joy to make. Joey, as I know him, is an extremely talented induvial and extremely kind on top of that. An episode that brings lots of calm energy: please enjoy! Make sure you follow Joey @Joseph_tobin 

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Host- Ty Nelson @tallglassofty

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Hello and welcome back to another episode of TheDanceFloor. I'm your host Ty Nelson, and we have a very special episode today. I know I might say that on every episode, but today is super special. I am joined by Mr. Joey Tobin, who is this beautiful tall drink of water, an amazing dancer, a lovely, just kind individual. We've worked together before on Virgin and we're here blessed. I am blessed at least to be on another contract as he does what's called “Untitled Dance Show Party Thing.” as well as “Around The World with ‘The Diva’” here on Valiant Lady. But this is Joey Tobin. Joey, welcome. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. This episode's also a little bit different. We did the structure different. Joey and I have already done the dance, but we'll still talk about that later. We are freshly showered and in a chill mood, but I'm excited to have Joey. Joey, who are you? Who are you? Who would you like the people to know? Yeah, I'm Joey from the UK, originally from someone called Lincolnshire which no ones normally ever heard of. Just know: countryside realness. Oh, I love it. Is the best way to put it. OK. Although I'm now based in northwest London as of a month before this contract started, so that was great. I'm an Aquarius. There we go. My birthday is kind of a flex, honestly, because I was born on a Tuesday, which is the second day of the week at 2:00 o’clock on the 2nd of February, the second month. Wow, 22222. Lots of Angel numbers, yes. Oh, that is my Angel number 100% That's why you're so special. Real talk, yes, Joey’s awesome, and I do mean that sincerely. What is your first memory of dancing or moment in performing that cemented the fact that you wanted to keep doing this for as long as you can? You know what, there's one memory that always sticks in my brain is I remember it was one of my closing performances before I went to professional training. So by that point I kind of knew that I wanted to do it. But this moment kind of like solidified about, oh, This is why I do what I do sort of thing. My dad has been one of my biggest supporters, like my biggest fans for like my entire dance life and I did a performance that I had done a couple times at like big competitions in the UK and stuff, but he had never seen it. So he just never had the opportunity to because he was working or something came up or whatnot. So the first time he saw it was the last time I was ever going to perform it with my dance school. So you already knew it, It's in your body. Yeah. Yeah. So is that like the summer show. Like there was a lot of emotions because it was like, my last time performing with the school. And I just remember finishing like, like hitting the finishing pose. And right before everybody started clapping, all I heard was my dad from the back row just go, “Oh, my gosh!” And that's the first thing that I heard before the applause happened. And the way that that just stuck in my brain. And that was a moment of like, This is why I do what I do like my parents like are the reason that I'm a dancer and the fact that I was able to just get that reaction from them always just like sticks in my brain of like, that's the moment where I always check back in. I'm like, no, This is why I do what I do because I have to remember that, like, that was my dad, which is great. But I'm like, that can also be anybody. Yeah. I think it's important. Kind of the piggyback in that I feel like I hear this a lot, finding your “why” within artistry or just in general things that get you out of the bed every day. Finding your why is important. It's nice that your why was your family and finding that connection.That's so dope though, because like adversely, my dad not even around in that sense. But having your parents is so special 'cause I still have my mom and my mom is amazing. I love that. I love that you got to experience like what a fun memory to really. Yeah, it's like it is genuinely a core memory for me. Yeah, core memory. That's what I'm looking for. Yeah. That's dope. All right. I love that. So what is your background, whether it be formal training, watching YouTube videos to learn, what is you? Sure. What is you? So my story within dance is, dare I say, kind of interesting. OK, basically I am.. I'm autistic, neurodivergent. Wow. I don't even know that. This is kind of like a.. Long story short. I always knew that I was, but I never actually understood what it meant to be autistic. Yeah. so that's like a change that's happened since we last saw like 3 years ago we were together. So yeah. But basically when I was younger, I was a problem child. I was mute, so I was nonverbal for quite a while. I had really difficult time with like my motor skills, like my hand eye coordination was really bad. I was a very clumsy child, a lot of energy as well. So I was going through like vocal therapy, physical therapy, they were taking me any kind of sports thing that they could do just to kind of keep me occupied and get me moving. Yeah. And when I was, one of the things that was recommended was, you know the ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ games? Yeah, of course. Classic. It was recommended by the doctor to get me that because it's something that's physical and it would help with my hand eye coordination because yeah, you see the arrows, you press the arrow with the foot directions and whatnot. So that was what was suggested. They got it from me on like my PS2 that I had and that was it. I was hooked. Like I loved it. Like I would come home from school and I'd be on it, I'd go eat dinner and then I'd be right back on it. Like they couldn't get me off it. That's incredible. So then at the time I was doing a bunch of different like sports. I was doing like cross country, football, swimming, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But they're like sports centre, like leisure centre that I was doing all those things that they were opening up a new dance school and they saw that and was like, well, he seems to like this game. Maybe we just take him to this dance class to see what happens. I went on the very first day that they opened at school, and I was there for the entirety of that school's existence. And then when I was about 13/14, I moved to a different dance school because that one closed. And that's when I then started taking it a bit more seriously and like, it kind of got like real. And then when I was 18, I moved to London. Auditioned for multiple dance schools like colleges and got into Umm, a fairly prestigious, dare I say umm like college called Bird College full name is Doreen Bird College. OK. But yes, went to bird college, did that for like 3-4 years that was my professional training graduated and then I've been kind of lucky to be working ever since. So, yeah, so I come from like a musical theater background, but my specialty is within more like contemporary. Yeah. Which, which we got to see today did. We're gonna love this piece. It's so cool. Ironically enough, the Dance Dance Revolution thing, you had like that little flimsy mat thing, right? So I had that. Oh, I had the flimsy mat because I was so intense with it. I ripped. So then they got me one that was like the industrial. So like you know how you have like the metal ones? You could buy them as like a separate thing that you could plug into the PlayStation. And I got one of those. Oh my God, I didn't even know you can get that. That's sick. Neither did I, my parents online and just got it so yeah, I had like pretty sick, yeah. Which honestly now makes more sense. Joey's a huge gamer as well, especially he's a *** *** in Mario Kart. Really good at Smash Brothers too. We're getting there, We're getting there. Super good. That makes more sense why you have such a background for gaming. So it's the two kind of go hands in hand like, yeah, I love video games, I love dance. And they kind of happened because of Dance Dance Revolution. Yeah. So it's like, yeah, hand in hand. I'm actually terrible at Dance Dance Revolution. Oh Really? But when I was younger, I used to play it as well. Obviously, probably not as much, but my family and I, we would go to Myrtle Beach and I would go to the pier and that's the dance I would do legit. I would literally be on the pier acting as if I was doing dance dance. And I remember having a core memory, if you will. This one lady came up and gave me a dollar and I was like, “I should do this forever.” Yeah, It's like “I can get paid to do this?” Yeah.  “to do Dance Dance Revolution even more specifically?” Wow. Yeah. That's sick, though. Yeah. So that's my story. I'm learning so much about Joey right now. Straight up, this is. I'm with the listeners. I'm getting to know you. That's incredible. What inspires you, obviously, besides your family giving you the motivation to do things, but is there something that really inspires you? I feel like, I mean, maybe the style of dance you do has an inspiration cuz as we worked on the dance, I don't wanna talk about it too much now cuz we'll get into it a little bit later. But the way he was describing the dance. In the way it kind of became its own art was so lovely and you'll see it within the dance itself. But what what inspires you just in general? So kind of depends. So one of my first major inspirations when I was younger, in a more like literal sense for Gene Kelly. Oh yes, classic. But to me, there was something so amazing about the way that he danced that I was like so mesmerized by that. I was like, this is so cool, this is what I want to do. But in a more kind of like philosophy, I don't know what the correct word is, but like kind of what we were talking about, something that I'm very influenced by is elements of the earth. I had a wonderful teacher, Louisa, I believe her name was, who told me contemporary and she would use the elements of the earth to help people kind of find different movement qualities. Like if someone needed to be a bit more grounded in their movement, they would use like earth elements to try and find what that balance and see if that would help. And that's something that always stuck with me, so much so that I ended up doing my dissertation piece about it. Umm, I did a 30 minute choreographed piece about how you can use elements of the earth to influence movement quality in dancers. And it's something that I'm very inspired by and I use it in a daily basis. So like a lot of the times for me. Even honestly like taking like out of dance, like I even kind of like look at people and I'm like, oh, you're a very like fire character, right? And something that I also find interesting is it does usually correlate with people's star signs. OK, that's what I like people star signs. Every star sign has like a particular like element that is associated with. And I do find it interesting that most of the time I feel like people, when they tell me that they're star sign and I know what element that is, I'm like, oh, that just kind of makes sense actually. Yeah. Because like my big three is all three different elements, which I think does kind of make my character profile make sense. But I know some people who are like majority fire signs, I'm like, oh, that makes sense, right. Or people that are more like waters or like all their big three of water signs, like, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Ironically, not even ironically, an example of that. In our dance, you were like, yeah, this is like you're moving through dirt. When we did the thing on the ground, I was like, that's a good way to think about it. Now it makes more sense, too. That's usually like what I find like inspiration with whenever it comes to like anything. Yeah, I did that. What is something that you've learned throughout life? I mean, you kind of just gave a really cool example about the elements being something you can tie into to different parts of your life. But advice you'd want to give to people and/or something you've learned that you'd love to share with the world, even just something you think if you meet somebody, you normally talk about this maybe something like that, for example, like I've been really on a big tip of self discovery and kind of therapy and I use this thing called Positive Intelligence. It's a program that my life coach gave me and so I talk about that and that's something that really I want people to be able to get into cuz therapy is a big thing, but it can be dance. Umm, let me let you talk about it first. Yeah, I guess. Something that I always live by that I think especially right now with the current state of everything that's happening, is that everything happens for a reason. OK yeah. And I think sometimes like we don't have control over a lot of things and sometimes that is a very scary thing, especially if you're someone like me who can be a little bit of a control freak. But for me, everything truly does happen for a reason. So whether you are going through something that is a bit… I don’t know if I’m allowed to swear? Yeah, Little ****. Little ****. Yeah, I knew it. Or like, for whatever reason, like, I feel like a lot of times people will go through a cycle where they are continuously being, like, challenged by something. And it's sometimes like a “why me.” kind of situation. Like, why do these things keep happening to me? Yeah. And I've always found: Even when I am like in a rut of like, things are just not working out for me. Things aren't right. Things aren't going how they should. It always ends up circling back-round later that I'm like, that's why this happened. I feel that you feel like I've had it where like contracts that I've had offered haven't happened and it's actually worked out better because the timing of it has been better for me because maybe something would have happened on that contract had I been there or I would have missed another opportunity that came up that ended up being better for me. So for me, it's a very much like I try my best to be a go with the flow type of person because at the end of the day, I saw something recently that really like there's no point in stressing over something if it's going to happen anyways, right? Like if you know something is going to happen. Let it happen. Like there's no reason stressing over it. It's been like, OK, this is going to happen. Great. I will just do it as it comes and see what happens. It's like the the trope of worrying twice. Like you worry about what is going to happen and then you worry as it happens, right. Versus just we'll get there when we get there. Let it happen then. Yeah. And then yeah, that's a good one. I want to also touch into: you, as a tall human. How? First off, 2 questions. How tall are you? I am 6 foot 36 foot 3, specifically 191 centimeters. OK, why is it that you know that one specifically? Because… So the reason why is because I for like my medical like I had to be like measured for my height and everyone… A lot of the times when I tell people that I'm 6 foot 3, they're like you're not 6 foot three, you're taller. Because I am just a very I think because not only my tall, but I'm also just like. Not big because that sounds, but like I'm just like broad, I guess. Yeah. Like, so I'm not like, you know how like a lot of tall guys tend to be quite like lanky. Yeah, I'm not necessarily like a typical lanky man. I'm quite big and broad anyways, so I think people see me as like taller anyways. So I always tell people that like, oh, I'm 6 foot 3. “You’re definitely taller” 'cause I'll sometimes stand next to people that are 6 foot 3 and I seem taller. But I have been measured and I am specifically 191 centimeters so get it right. So I am 6 foot 3 so as a six foot three man. Especially as a dancer, even just an athlete, what is something that advice you maybe would give to someone else who's taller, that maybe a little timid and trying to get into dance? What's maybe a challenge that you face that you've overcome, Something that you could have learned a little sooner that would help things along the way? And if it's not too serious, it's fine, but something the advice as a tall human to other tall humans who are sometimes discouraged to get athletic. Why would you give those people? It is definitely more difficult in every kind of concept to be completely honest with you, because like for example, doing choreography in whatever. Style or whatever, it's gonna be harder for taller people because there's more. Of that body to move. right. So in general, like things are just more difficult because you are taller. One thing that I will say I spent most of my professional training being told, “oh, you're tall you're gonna book jobs in this industry you're so tall people are gonna love you. You're gonna walk into audition rooms you're gonna snap up those jobs because you're tall.” Yeah, I've actually had the complete opposite. Really? I, I mean, I that's kind of what I thought originally as well. Yeah. I feel like there is a big thing that that's, and there are certain aspects where like there are certain jobs that you would go for. And honestly, I feel like the ones that I have booked have been helped by the fact that I was tall. But I can't tell you the amount of times that I have been in an audition room.  I've gone through all the rounds. I get to the end and they do the classic line everybody up in hight order and I'm at the very top and I just know and I know I get the energy in the room. I'm just like, I'm not getting this job. And a lot of the times it's because of costuming or something. And they always, it's never, I've never been stood in the line of height and they've cut the shorter people, they've always cut the taller the taller people, the ones that go. So interesting. And the way that I've like what I found is people that are like 5-11 are like the great height, like the perfect height. Because the experience that I've had is that they're, if they're gonna be on the slightly taller side then and like it's like a smaller cast, for example, they're the taller side of the smaller cast. Or if it's a taller cast, they're the smaller side of the taller cast, right? So they're always within that window, OK. Is the experience that I've had, yeah. But.. so if you're 5’11, get into Yeah, 5’11 is consider yourself very lucky. And I'm extremely jealous of you. Yeah, But no, I feel like like one thing that is a benefit about being taller is that it is easier to make yourself known. Which I know sounds really like obvious, but there is something very this is what I'll say. I think for taller people, it's very easy for us to try and match with the people's height. That's why a lot of times people that at all are like round shoulders because they spend their life lowering themselves to not like physically lowering themselves to be matched the height of other people. But a dancer that walks into a room, especially taller, that holds themselves with the confidence. Is yes, I am tall and I'm gonna let you know about it there is something very powerful about that in an audition room. This is something that I've been told and whether or not that does work against you like we love you but you're too tall. They still remember you right as you've made yourself present you're not trying to hide the fact that you're tall. You're confident in the fact that you are tall. That's something that is very takes a lot of work. But once you find it and you find confidence in your height, it's something that is like so powerful. Yeah. Now we get to talk a little bit about the dance. Normally we would talk about just. We have more to talk about now 'cause this, in this episode, we've actually already done the dance, which is cool. I really let the guests choose, as you know, but they choose the song and they choose the style. You are the first person, at least in the series so far, to do contemporary, which is really fun. I love contemporary. I'm not really a contemporary dancer, but. Uh, what I noticed even talking about what you were just talking about, you know, we got super low to the point where I was like, oh, he's lower than me. Like let me, let me, let me really get low with it. But more about this dance and about this song. So First off, how did you discover the song? So I actually found the song through Tiktok. Which we love. We love say talk thank you. So it was just I actually don't know. It says Ty’s music, which I thought was so silly. I was like, I mean, come on. Okay, but I'm not actually sure the name of the individual, but they came up on my TikTok and all they were playing was the saxophone like in like a car park and just doing like arpeggios, but they just go up and down with the notes. And the way that I was like, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard in my entire life. And then I go to the comments section and everyone is thinking the same thing. So I was like. Oh, like, is that, does this exist somewhere, like on Spotify? Because I need this in my playlist to like listen to it wasn't. But then they a bunch of people were commenting saying like, hey, can you get this on Spotify or like SoundCloud or something? And with enough feedback, he ended up getting it on Spotify and stuff, which is great. So it's part of the playlist. Listen to your people. But yeah TikTok..Honestly a lot of my music I now find through Tiktok which is great but this one specifically was his account came up on my Tiktok feedback and now I fell in love with the song. Yeah. And the song is really cool. We just kind of looped it. It's it's, I mean, I guess he does it twice in the song, but I wonder if he just played it once and then said, I'll loop it to give it some more texture. We did it four times, the whole phrase of the song, which is really fun.The dance itself. Can you talk a little bit about like that wilted flower you were talking about where someone described you? So something that was 1… something that I had as feedback. I was doing a lot of like improv stuff with some creatives, which was amazing and it was so funny. This was actually during lockdown. They were like, this sounds like a read. But I promise you, it's a compliment. You dance like a wilted flower. And it's so beautiful, actually kind of going on the tall thing. A lot of the times tall dances are supposed to be like, expansive and bigger than everybody else in this, any other. And he said it was so nice to see someone who is taller. Yeah, look more more like wilted and like we. And I was like, that's something that I feel like very kind of is a little bit about who I am as well. Like being able to express that side of myself because I also come from like a ballet training a little bit. And ballet is very like I almost look like this. I positions in this and the other. So to be able to break out of that is quite nice. But I when I was listening to the song, something that just like the way that the music spoke to me, like the image that I got when I was listening to the song was this level of like or element of growth, like flowers coming up from the ground or like a tree growing or like something about it being like growth and expansion is what like I just envisioned when I heard the music. So kind of combining the two things of what the wilted flower that grows and what is the cycle of that growth that comes out of the ground, It grows the bloom, it blossoms, and then it wilts back down into the Earth. Yeah, and that was kind of the inspiration for what we did with our little creation. I love it too. It's so cool. Like it really has that circle of life moment in it. The ending comes back to where we start, and even just the simplest like hand gesture, which starts the combo essentially. It's really cool. I hope you all enjoy it cause Joey is phenomenal as a dancer and a creator. Just the process of it, he really took hold of this and I gave like a couple of moves. He really had this idea and we just executed it and it's super cool. I'm really happy to be a part of it. I like the combination of the literal movement in an artistic way. Yeah, and I think. That's what it's like. It's simple, but it works and that's where I live. I live for a simple moment that's. That's not too complicated, but it's just like it exists because it exists, and that's beautiful. Which also in the background of our video, there's just people working out. Yeah, So a full workout just in the background obsessed. Just kind of a fun wrap up question. I feel like we really got to know you a lot in this episode already, which is lovely. Let's see what is something that people, most people really outside of dance don't know that you get involved with? I would say outside of gaming because we did learn about that. Is there something like a hidden talent or a hobby that you really enjoy? It's very basic kind of, you know, see, I always feel when people ask, oh, what hobbies do you have? Yeah, it's really hard for me to like, not have it be something that's like performing based. I feel that one of my other hobbies is like circus stuff. Oh, that's still OK. I do you like juggling. Hula hooping. One of my biggest, like my favorite sport ever is rhythmic gymnastics. Like I love, love, love, love rhythmic gymnastics. I love all forms of gymnastics, but rhythmic specifically is so beautiful to me and insanely impressive. Like some of the stuff they do is like magic. But that's always like sometimes I talk about I'm like feel like that doesn't count because that goes in the element of like performing and stuff. But I think it definitely counts for me. Like wonderful. But some people would know, but I guess some people wouldn't maybe. Like, I don't think a lot of people know how much like I actually like love rhythmic gymnastics. It is a sport that I do follow and like for me, it's really difficult because like if there's like drama within the rhythmic gymnastic community, I have no one to talk to about it with, right? So I like try and like get people involved and they’re Like “I have no idea what you're talking about.” but I'm like, “No, you don't understand.” See, I was actually gonna ask, is there like a team that you watch a lot or like a YouTube channel that you watch to get your fix? No, Although what I will say is the Olympics channel does something called Music Monday where they post like every Monday, a particular like routine or something that happens at the Olympics that they do like to music. So that's like a rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics. Synchronized swimming, like all those kind of sports where they do it to music, they post them. And that's where I get my fix because sometimes they'll post like more recent Olympic videos from like the most, what was it, Paris? But then sometimes they go all the way back to like the like 2000, like Sydney, like a throwback moment. And it's like so cool to see like how the sport itself has like, evolved and changed as well, which I think is super cool. Yeah, that was probably my one. Hobbies, interests. I like that. You know what? I also like this whole episode. Yeah. It's really been great. Seriously, thank you. The creation process, just the chill vibes we have. Where can people find you? Joey? What would you like to plug out there? My plug would be probably my Instagram, which is Joseph_Tobin, the full name and that's about it. I don't really have any other socials. I do have TikTok, but I do post, but I'm not like a TikToker at all. Yeah. That is toeinthebin is great. Is my name on there. I have one viral video that happened during like lockdown. What's what's next for you outside of this contract? What’s like the next work? Maybe trying to find you that. So I'm here on Valiant until October. So I'm here for a while. My contract just started, which is great. My goal after this is kind of again going with the flow, just seeing what pops up. I would like to try and do a little bit more in London, see what comes up there. I normally do Christmas shows, pantomimes which is super fun, so hopefully might try and get into that again. But yeah, I'll just kind of see what happens. If I end up back on a ship, great. If I end up in London, also great. We'll see what happens and play it by ear. And yeah, with the flow, yeah, I love the, I love the vibes. Yeah, well, sailors. Sailors. Well, people, yeah, right. The training, the media training, those that don't know, I don't know if I've talked about this yet. We call our guest sailors on ship, the “Ahoy sailors.” This is not branded at all. Um, people who listen, thank you so much for tuning in. Hopefully you've once again found some inspiration in what we talked about. We want to get a huge thank you to Joey. Seriously, another awesome. Thank you for having me. This has been super fun. I've enjoyed this. Thank you. Yeah, great creation process, fun little interview. We hope that you find some type of inspiration and eventually, one day maybe we'll see you out on TheDanceFloor. Bye bye. Thank you, Why did I go American just then? For some reason I went American. Oh my God, I love that. I’m like “TheDanceFloor” I'm like OK, Oh my God, I love that. Oh that’s cute. OHHH I love that! Absolutely. 

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