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The Melbourne Shuffle is a style of dance, originating in the late 1980s in the Melbourne (Australia) underground dance party scene. The style is taken from typical Jazz moves & incorporated with a modern twist. The basis of the Melbourne Shuffle has traditionally been footwork, either performed sliding left to right, on the spot or in a triangular movement. Performed well, shufflers can seem to be gliding across the dance floor and defying gravity. Dance moves from other numerous styles such as mimeing, popping, locking, liquiding and breaking can also be incorporated into shuffling.
History
The Melbourne Shuffle was one of several dances that emerged during the acid house era. Some have described the main dance styles in that period as jacking, stepping and shuffling. However, as the acid house genre became more diverse, two different but not mutually exclusive dance philosophies evolved; the back-step and the shuffle. The Shuffle has continued to evolve in Melbourne nightclubs and events over the years and has adopted moves from established dance styles such as hat tricks, spins and running on the spot moves have been thrown in over time.
Some of the major events that took part in the evolution of the shuffle over the years are:
Raves: That contributed to the melbourne shuffle: Land of the Giants, Pureflow, Every Picture Tells a Story, [http://www.hardwarecorp.com.au/ Hardware Parties, [http://www.earthcore.com.au/ Earthcore.
Clubs: Chinese Laundry @ Dome - 1993 by Hardware This club has since been restarted. Climax @ Inflation Night Club - Tuesday Nights from 1994 - 1997 This club largely contributed to the advancement of the Melbourne Shuffle. The Night Filter @ The Lounge - Wednesday night and one of melbournes longest running nights 1992-2001. Originally Awol Then called Escape on Friday nights run by *] @ Club CBD 1996-1998 (Pre-Bassstation). Bass Station. Frantic. Wetmusik. Teriyaki Anarki Saki. Clubs that ran after the year 2000, which pioneered the hat dance have been: HardKandy, Pharmacy, SmilePolice
Rave Venues: Global Village, Docklands, Kryal Castle and Palace in Saint Kilda
Music
The music that Melbourne Shufflers originally danced to House_Music Acid_house in the late 1980's early 1990's and as Trance_musiccame in the dancing style changed to a glide which changed back when Minimal_House came in. In 2006 Melbourne shufflers listen to hard trance, hardstyle, jumpstyle, hard house, psytrance, breakbeat, and drum and bass.
Dancing
Today known as "rocking" to the Melbourne locals, the name "Melbourne Shuffle" has been derived from overseas DJs, partygoers, visitors and the media trying to describe this phenomenon. The Melbourne rave/electronic music dancers don’t generally dance for competition; or to show off, but for themselves, for fun and self-expression. Learning is generally achieved through watching other dancers and incorporating variations into their own style, by which they create an individual style representing their own personality.
Many rave dancers in Melbourne dance for the spiritual side of dancing and do not care about whether they are shuffling or doing popular moves, but rather just feel and dance to the music in their own freestyle rythym. The trance feeling achieved when dancing at full flight has sometimes been compared to African tribal dances.
Some dancers sprinkle talcum powder on the floor beneath their feet to help them glide more easily. The use of talc to improve dancing has been around for decades, particularly popular with dancers at Northern_Soul allnighters in the UK.
History of the Melbourne Shuffle
1985 - 1988 - Melburnians dance on the spot with abit of bopping not so much legs. (not recognisable as the Melbourne shuffle).
1989 - 1990 - People mixed skank (dance) with abit of funk, far more leg movement still on the spot and abit of bop still in it.
1991 - 1992 - The Melbourne shuffle was starting to form it was a more of an advanced version than 1990 and more hand movement, the music was changing and peoples style with it.
1993 - 1995 - Was the centre point, people were gliding because now trance_music&house_musicwas a big part of the Melbourne Party/Rave culture and the foot movement of the Melbourne shuffle was well into existence. The key move to the Melbourne shuffle was 1 foot was lifted off the ground and the other foot was making a heel to toe movement along to the beat of the music for a short period of time then the roles changed to each foot. This allowed a dancer to glide side to side whilst holding their hands in front following the trebles of the music making the dancing style look hypnotic, some dancers could spin in a 360 circle before changing to the other foot. There are many variations of this dance but the main heel to toe movement remained the key motion giving it the term "The Melbourne Shuffle". It took alot of skill and balance to perfect properly, There were many good dancers during this point of time.
1996 - 1997 - The Melbourne Shuffle was recognised by interstate and overseas partie goers as an intense unique style of dance.
1997 - 1998 - Minimal house started coming in and the glide went to a funk again which was more quick leg movements.
2000 - 2001 - Dancing style was more on the spot again (this minimised people getting Kung fu'ed whilst dancing) less hand movement.
2002 - 2006 - The hat dance was incorporated involving having a hat flicked off the head and caught and quickly putting it back on.. Funk was around still but more of a hard edge funk incorporating jumping a very energetic dance but with far less hand movement compared to the mid 90’s.
Many dancers from the early 1990's are reporting having bad lower backs due to this style of dancing.
Clothing
Originally Ravers wore standard club clothing for the 1980's this changed in the early 1990's to clothes that were often made by hand or bought from very few outlets, it wasn’t till 1993-1994 reflective material was used on clothes. 1994 a string of clothing stores called Renegade opened selling a variety of rave clothing, from fluoro coloured tops to baggy pants that flared out towards the bottom of the leg. Euphemism also sold rave clothing & records during this point of time. Renegade closed business in 1997, as did euphemism clothing 2001. Phat Pants started in the year 2000 commercialising rave clothing making them with a very wide leg and often decorated with bright colours and reflective fabric. Sometimes shufflers will incorporate their clothing into the shuffle. A popular example of this is the use of hat. During the shuffle the hat can be spun and thrown. The hat may be spun in an alternate direction to the other movements of the shuffler to cause an illusion.
Media
"The Melbourne Shuffle" dance style remained relatively underground since its birth in the late 80's and early 90's. The Term "The Melbourne Shuffle" was not used till 1998 when Sonic Animation's Rupert Keiller was interviewed by RAGE. When the interviewer asked Rupert what his unique style of dance was, his reply was "The Melbourne Shuffle" since then the word circulated around the scene for a couple of years before finally being brought to light by a front page newspaper article(PDF File Link) which appeared in Melbourne's The Age newspaper in 2002, attempting to illustrate what the Melbourne Shuffle was for the first time to the mainstream public because thousands of young Melbournians were shuffling at dance parties every week.
Recently the shuffle has spread to Malaysia, most likely due to Malaysian students studying in Melbourne, discovering the electronic dance music scene and taking the unique shuffle back with them. Since 2005, there have been 'Shuffle Competitions' held in Malaysia.
Shufflers have taken their art form and self-expressive dance style overseas and are a regular sight to be seen at rave parties in the UK, Germany, Malaysia, and Thailand. The internet has also been a factor in spreading knowledge and interest in the shuffle.
A documentary entitled Melbourne Shuffler was in production during 2004-2005 and was recently released in late 2005 on DVD.
External links
- Some people called them 'raves' More history about the Melbourne Shuffle
- Melbourne Shuffler Official website of the Melbourne Shuffler DVD documentary
- Inthemix.com.au article A Brief History of the Melbourne Shuffle
- Hardstep.de A European dance community with Melbourne Shuffle instructions and tutorial videos.
- Xes.cx A Malaysian based Melbourne Shuffle Website with videos, events, music, news.
"Melbourne Shuffle"