Melbourne Shuffle

Melbourne Shuffle

The Melbourne Shuffle (also known as Rocking or simply The Shuffle) is a rave andclub dance that originated in the late 1980s in the underground rave music scene inMelbourne, Australia. The basic movements in the dance are a fast heel-and-toe action with a style suitable for various types of electronic music. Some variants incorporate arm movements. People who dance the shuffle are often referred to as rockers, due in part to the popularity of shuffling to rock music in the early 1990s.

TIMELINE

Late 1980s–early 1990s

In the late '80s, the Melbourne Shuffle began to emerge as a distinct dance, incorporating more hand movement than its predecessor, Stomping. Breakbeat and techno music was gradually replaced with the more hardcore forms of rave music, such as hard trance and hardstyle.

Where the Melbourne Shuffle was originally danced, the places were not considered to be named 'raves', but rather 'dance parties'.

Mid–late 1990s

A number of videos documenting the style during this era exist as the style increased in popularity.^[2] There are many variations of this dance but the main heel-to-toe movement remained the key motion, giving it the name "the Melbourne Shuffle". Notably arm-movements are much more prevalent than in later renditions of the dance.

2000–2008

In 2004 a documentary entitled Melbourne Shuffler began filming in Melbourne clubs, raves, festivals and outdoor events, before being released on DVD in 2005. By 2005, the Melbourne Shuffle had helped to change the sound of hardstyle and hard trance music, with DJs and producers aiming at a constant 140-160bpm speed. By 2006, early hardstyle was largely replaced by nustyle and epic trance -influenced hard trance music at popular shuffling clubs and raves. Nustyle and the newer form of hard trance focused on swung euphoric orchestral-like trance melodies that would suddenly drop (such as by a house exciter) into a constant kick drum that was of preferable speed for shuffling to by the rockers. In 2006 with the rising popularity of YouTube, dancers internationally now contribute to the Shuffle online, posting their own variations and learning from others. The German band Scooter featured the shuffle performed by veterans Missaghi "Pae" Peyman & Sarah Miatt in the video for the single J'adore Hardcore, which was partly filmed in Melbourne. As more people have practiced the dance, the dance itself has changed from the majority of hand movements over feet movements, to present day, where it is mostly based on keeping in time with bass beats.

2009

In early to mid 2009 the infectious popularity of the Melbourne Shuffle on YouTube began to calm, but not die, bringing on a new age of shufflers. The dance began to revert to what some people call "Oldschool". This reversion of shuffling consisted mostly of wide variations of the "T-Step" and minimal running man, and is accented by glides and spins. Although this may be referred to as "Oldschool" this new age of style is still very different from the way rockers in the '90s danced. Many of the new wave of rockers perform in cypher. Some of the younger people of this new wave are referred to as teeny boppers (or 'TB(s)' for short). TBs are also generally described as being young people that are not old enough to attend raves, so they dance at school, in a street or in a park instead. Whereas individuals who participate in those aspects of the dance argue that enough of the current Shuffle scene is influenced by Hip Hop (such as the now widespread inclusion of the 'Running Man') that these activities are justified.

DANCING

The origins of the name "Melbourne Shuffle" are unknown. The term was first brought to the public attention by Sonic Animation's Rupert Keiller during a TV interview in Sydney. The Age referred to it as looking like "a cross between the chicken dance and a foot stomping robot" to the untrained eye, but locals simply called it "stomping".

Some dancers sprinkle talcum powder or apply liquid to the floor beneath their feet to help them glide more easily, some including 360 degree spins or jumps into their moves. Others apply smooth plastic tape or duct tape to the soles of their shoes.

Originally consisting of the "T-Step" combined with arm movements, during the 1990s the "Running Man" has been adopted into the dance, accentuating the new focus of keeping time with the beat. The "Running man" involves a 2-step motion in which the front foot is brought backwards with two hops while the back foot is brought forwards in a walking motion, creating a "running on the spot" motion, hence the name. The "T-Step" is a fast sideways heel-toe motion on one foot twisting at the ankle. The dance is embellished by spins, arm pumps, slides, and kicks. Modern implementations of the dance include motions from other dances such as Crip Walk, Toprockand Jumpstyle, which have brought the less-adaptive t-step to the background. Some dancers even omit the t-step completely.

Although Hardstyle has been a dominant genre to dance on within the Melbourne Shuffle for many years, referring to the dance with "hardstyle" is incorrect. "Hardstyle" is an umbrella term for many different rave dances globally, as well as a genre of electronic music. Hardstyle is a rave dance, while most other styles were typically performed in clubs and dance parties.

With the spread of the Melbourne Shuffle through YouTube, dancing styles have evolved from each other to a point in which people refer to styles with an abbreviation coming from the area in which the style came from, such as "AUS"/"Melb" (Australia/Melbourne), "MAS"/"Malay" (Malaysia) or "Cali" (California). These distinctions cause a lot of confusion for newcomers and those who are unfamiliar with the dance.