Melbourne Shuffle
| Melbourne Shuffle | |
|---|---|
| Dance Type | Rave dance |
| Innovator | N/A - B-Boys, Cybergoths and Ravers of Melbourne |
| Year | 1980s - Present |
| Country | Australia |
| Competitions | Various globally |
| Related topics | |
The Melbourne Shuffle (also known as Rocking or simply The Shuffle) is a rave and club dance that originated in the late 1980s in the underground rave music scene in Melbourne, Australia. The basic movements in the dance are a fast heel-and-toe action with a style suitable for various types of electronic music. Most variants also incorporate arm movements. People who dance the shuffle have often been referred to as "rockers", due in part to the popularity of shuffling to rock music in the early 1990s.
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, and also used the term in their paper, but locals simply called it "stomping". At closer scrutiny, one could presume that its origins came on the onset of MC Hammer's dance videos and later dance moves such as "The Dougie".
In the early '90s, the Melbourne Shuffle began to emerge as a distinct dance, incorporating more hand movement than its predecessor, Stomping. The music genres originally danced to were Hardstyle, House music, and Acid house. As Trance music developed, so did the dance, with more accent laid on glide movements.
Where the Melbourne Shuffle was originally danced, the places were not considered to be named 'raves', but rather 'dance parties'.
A number of videos about the dance from this era exist as it increased in popularity. Many variations of this dance developed, 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.
In 2004 a documentary titled 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. 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.
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