OK so we're figuring first up you'd like to know how to Shuffle.

We go into condiserable depth in the following pages, covering everything you need to know and more about the cultural aspects. Melbourne has over 200 languages spoken on a daily basis, in a city of about 5,000,000. And we all tend to get along while preserving much of our traditional cultural heritage. It's from this that the Melbourne Shuffle was born.

There is enough info to keep you busy for 6 months reading and practicing. So move at your own pace and enjoy.

Or you can have a quick read below and try your first steps in 5 minutes ;)


1) The Melbourne Shuffle is a simplified version of traditional Irish Dancing and centuries old Clogging.

2) Each shuffler has a collection of moves called a 'vocabulary' These moves can be shuffled around in sequence to suit a shufflers moods. Just like with words in a language.

3) In dance, this shuffling around or arrangment of moves is called choreography. The choreographer in shuffling is usually the individual shuffler. They decide how their moves are arranged.

This is what makes Shuffling different from most other dance styles. In most other dance styles, the choreography has already been set in place, and you must follow the sequence exactly to be 'doing it right'.

The emphasis with individual Shuffle choreography is to be different and creative, rather than be the same as everybody else.

But first up for beginners, learn some moves by imitating other shufflers. It is considered ok to imitate other shufflers while learning as long as you also acknowledge the source, as a sign of respect. To copy anothers choreography and try to pass it off as your own is considered theft in shuffle culture.

4) You can have as many moves as you want in your style, from just a couple to 50 or more. The moves can be from any dance style, which is where the Melbourne Shuffle derives it's 'freestyle' tag. You are 'free' to include any style, such as moves from your own culture, and also create new ones of your own.

5) The greater number of moves in your shuffle vocabulary the greater the variety and sophistication of your shuffle style.

6) The most common shuffle moves are the Stomp (Hardstyle) and Shuffle (foot twisting). These are the simplest and quickest to learn, which is why they are so common.

7) Both moves go back more than 800 years in Celtic dance traditions.

> Shuffling is a way of moving sideways while wearing wooden clogs
> Stomping goes back 3000-4000 years as a ritualistic immitation of a horse stomping its hoof against the ground. Mostly performed by Celtic shamans/priests and others involved in sacred ceremonies. Horses are sacred animals in early Celtic culture.

HOW LONG TO LEARN

If you have never danced before, you can learn the basic stomp and shuffle steps in 10 minutes.

It generally takes about 3-6 months to get to a level where you could confidently do a youtube vid.

Most of the practice you do learning shuffling, is to strengthen your leg and foot muscles, and develop a good sense of balance.

This practice also develops muscle memory, so after a while you just do it without thinking.

Here's some good tutorials to get you underway.


Dr3kar's (USA) shuffle tutorial



Learn how to Melbourne Shuffle - basics tutorial Len Hall We Dance Hard



The Melbourne Shuffle Tutorial Ambydos[NL]


UPDATE JAN 2009

Our good friend Len Hall has produced a fantastic shuffle dvd tutorial below is a preview vid, and link to the review and where to buy.
http://melbourneshuffleoldskool.blogspot.com/2008/11/best-shuffle-tutorial-ever.html

We Dance Hard Shuffle tutorial dvd (2008)

Earliest Known Shuffle Footage 1991

This is the earliest known Shuffle footage. I filmed this in 1991. It shows you exactly what the Shuffle looked like and how it occured at such an early stage of it's development.

You can find out more about this footage at this post:
http://melbourneshuffleoldskool.blogspot.com/2008/02/shuffle-earliest-known-shuffle-footage.html

We generally call this the 'Classic Shuffle' which is like the starting point for the Shuffle. You then expand to include, things like Hardstyle which is a recent development of the Shuffle in the mid 2000's.



The Shuffler is Aslan (in white top below), who was well known in the Shuffle scene. There is more of Aslan shuffling in the next post vids, at the begining of PHATS 2




Earliest Known Shuffle Footage 1991 (Garry Shepherd)

There is no right or wrong way to do the Melbourne Shuffle!

It may sound strange at first, but that's how it started and continues to today. It's a Free Style dance form, you dance how you please we'll go into this a bit later.



We recommend that you have a read of SHUFFLE! The Movement www.shufflethemovement.com to get an idea how this concept actually works.

For some of the best examples of the Melbourne Shuffle done by the the first generation of Oldskool Shufflers - the ones who created the Shuffle we recommend watching these 2 vids from the PHATS! article

PHATS! http://melbourneshuffleoldskool.blogspot.com/2008/03/shuffle-phats.html

This footage is from 1995 when the Shuffle had fully developed into an a dynamic, skillful and innovative dance style with a broad range of individual styles and moves. it also includes some of the first shuffle teams/crews and the FIRST EVER SHUFFLE FASHION parades.

You are welcome to try to dance as good as these oldskoolers but they are serious proshufflers. So don't get too disappointed if you cant match the moves.

In fact I have yet to see any of the current generation of Shufflers come anywhere near to these oldskoolers Please let us know if you spot any on youtube, it'd be great to see this pro level of Shuffling happening again.

Be warned, it will take 3-5 years of practice at least 8-12 hours every week ))

PHATS 1


PHATS 2

Well, I was thinking.. what is the best pair of shoes a beginner should wear?

I'd do socks, but..

yeah.

:3

welcome to the forum aQiLa

Yeh Socks is good. Indoors on smooth surface of course, I wouldn't try socks on a concrete footpath

Most Shufflers wear trainers/runners/gym shoes, BUT these sorts of shoes are made to give you good grip on a smooth surface, the opposite of what you need for Shuffling, 'slip'.

They are used mainly because they are fashionable and everybody wears them, not because they are good for Shuffling.

You need a bit of grip for Shuffling, especially for 'kicking off' when you jump or move position, but not too much.

So once your trainers are worn down a bit, they are good. Then you have a little bit of time to enjoy Shuffling in them before you make holes in the soles, especially on the front/ball of your feet.

Some Shufflers put gaffer/duct tape on the sole of their shoes. This usually lasts a few hours, enough shuffling for most in one session.

The most popular thing to give you 'slip' instead of 'grip', which oldskoolers started and still swear by, is baby talcum powder. Like the plastic bottle in the pic below. It doesn't matter what brand just what ever you can get - cheap



JUST A LITTLE BIT! tho, sprinkle it on the floor and don't over use. Otherwise you fall over all the time and you end up breaking bones and ankles.

Talcum power is only good for reasonably smooth floors to start with. It won't work on rough surfaces.

Thank you, you actually saved my brain from imploding from thinking too much. :3

hey no worries aQila glad I could help.

I've been involved with the Shuffle since it began - way way back so feel free to ask at any time.

Many of us oldskoolers either forget or don't know what it's like to 'suddenly' discover the Shuffle, so we'll often assume you know everything.

There's a lot of stuff in the shuffle which is very much part of Melbourne culture too. We have over 180 languages spoken here in a city of about 5 million people, so our culture is a really big mix from all over the world, plus our own strange spin on things - as if it wasn't complicated enough already

So just ask, happy to help.

Actually , there ARE many types of shoes for shuffling .
However , bear in mind shoes don't make the shuffler better.
I wear narrow shoes like Converse Chuck Taylors and Rabens
They show off your feet movements better ,and to top it off , they're very smooth and flat-soled at the bottom ,making shuffling "easier".
Air Force 1's are also handy if you like bulky shoes . Skater shoes are SWORN by some people , but to each his own i guess.

Hey there (:

I'm kinda new to shuffle. I have just leaned the ''T'' or what you call it, but that's also the only thing i can do right now. But i got questions? :b
How long time have you doing the Melbourne Shuffle?
And how long time would it take for me to be really good to the shuffeling?
- I know that the last question is kinda hard to answear, but i just want to know how long it took you to lean the Melbourne Shuffle? (:

- Quintess

(And sorry my bad english. a 14 yeas old girl from Denmark, one like me, isn't so good til english right now ;b)

Hi Quintess, welcome to the forum. Don't worry about your english, is pretty good. If I don't understand, I will ask you to explain more.

The T - step, is the classic oldskool shuffle steps. People called it 'T step' just the past 2 years, because Big Milan says 'make like a T' in his how to shuffle vid. The T is actually 'Position 1' in classical ballet It's something oldskool shuffle girls showed the guys.

I've been doing the shuffle since it started, about 18 years ago now. I can't do it these days because my old bones are worn out, I first started to dance when i was about 8 years old, and won a competition for a dance called 'The Stomp' back in the 1960's.

I started as a dance DJ at summer beach parties in Melbourne when I was 10. But I mostly played synths/keyboards in dance bands as pro musician, electronic and disco in 1970's, hip-hop, electro in 1980's and trance, acid in 1990's. I also played and composed dance music for contemporary art dance (weird stuff) from 1970 - 90's.

HOW LONG TO BE GOOD SHUFFLER?

You are a good age to learn, 8 -16 y/old your muscles and bones have good strength and are flexible. When you are 20 years and over, your muscles start getting stiff, so it takes a bit longer to learn to shuffle. The peak for a professional dancers career is early 20's. Most retire professionally before they 30. Of course they can keep dancing for fun, but like pro athletes their bones and muscles are worn out, so it can be very painful and sore.

Find out more about health tips for shuffling, and differences for girls and guys here:
http://melbourneshuffleoldskool.blogspot.com/2007/07/melbourne-shuffle-girls.html

So if you have no dance experience, but can co-ordinate your feet and body easy, just a few months, and you will be posting your shuffle vids on youtube.

If you have learnt tap, jazz or ballet even just at fun level for kids, you can be a pretty good Shuffler in a few weeks.

The Shuffle is really easy to start with. Most kids can pick it up and have it look 'something like' the shuffle in a week.

To be a really good Shuffler, to be able to enter competitions, lots of practice at least 1 hour a day, for about 6 months.

After you have learnt all the basic moves, T Step, spins, gliding, hardstyle etc, you are judged on how creative your moves are. How you combine them to the music and what new moves you add.

So if you start today, by the end of this (northern) summer, you will be good

Good on you Quintess, that's the way to go

Make sure you work your way up to an hour or so. Begin with stretching your legs and back muscles, just gently to free them up, before you begin. That's called a 'warm up'

You will be sore for the first week or so while your muscles get used to the exercise, so take short rests every 10-15 minutes to stretch your back and legs.

And when you are about finished, slow down, then gradually stop. And stretch your back and legs again. That's called 'warming down'

A really good idea is to talk to your school sports teachers about exercises that will help you improve your shuffling without causing any strain on your body. Usually teachers love helping out.

hi,
actually im new to shuffle
just started to shuffle seriously a week ago
so,there are many things that i still dont know
can i know,steps/tricks in shuffle?

i only know about :
-the running man
-moonwalk
-kick
-T step

so,i hope you can list all the shuffle steps
if you dont mind,some steps list with the descriptions would be great!
thx~

anyway,sorry for the bad english

Hi NewbIe™ welcome to the forum, your english is very good

There are no set steps, the shuffle is more of a dance concept which allows you to add your own moves to it.

This can be very confusing when you are new to it. Like, how do you know what's shuffling ?

In the oldskool era it was easy because everyone was in the same room of a warehouse party dancing to the same music, and we called all of it the Melbourne Shuffle. (Actually we originally called it Stomping) So really there were 100's of different steps over the oldskool years 1990-97.

During the second generation of shufflers, from about 1998 - 2004 most of these early steps were forgotten and only the classic shuffle or T step remained along with a bit of running man.

Oldskoolers were shocked at how stiff and stylised the shuffle had become. Just a basic running man and t step, with no arm moves whatso ever. It was like thinking spinning on your head was the only dance move in hip-hop.

But since youtube we've been able to post a lot of the oldskool footage to show the great variety the shuffle has and now shufflers are experimenting a lot more. There was a lot more jumping about and arm movements in the original shuffle moves, and also moves to slow spacy parts of the music (usually psy trance).

We don't have any formal names for the steps, just common ones which usually describe what the moves look like.

We've never been really big on 'labels' in the Shuffle, which just confuses new people more We don't do it on purpose, we just find once something is labeled it becomes fixed and rigid, where the Shuffle really evolves over time.

But now we're slowly getting around to naming things, very slowly

It sounds like you have the basics, with T step, running man and kicks. Gliding is perhaps another one, it's common with hardstyle music, like sliding on ice.

In the Shuffle you can expand on these basics. Kicks for instance have come from martial arts moves. A lot of Shufflers have had some martial arts training and incorporate the kicks into their shuffle.

I'd recommend trying some of the moves in the two PHATS ! vids above. They have some stunning shufflers. The moves are pretty hard, such as Randall here in 1995 grabbing his ankle during a spin in full shuffle without missing a beat. Very impressive.



But the moves will give you an idea what can be done shuffling, such as this guy at a 1996 meet up doing what appears to be an early version of jumpstyle, quite a few years before it became big.



And check out these two guys Aslan



and Nicky Hardcore. Both excellent pro shufflers and part of the oldskool crew who invented the shuffle.



So have a bit of a try of the moves in the vids. And don't be afraid to use your arms too, both for balance and to extend your moves. It takes a fair bit of co-ordination at first, hard enough just getting the feet to go where you want. But include your arms as a counter or complimentary move to your feet, it gets your whole body dancing.

You'll find the crowd shots really helpful, giving you an idea of the variety of moves at the same time in the same crowd to the same music.

See how you go.

For a great example on how to 'add to the artform' as we call it, which means adding your own local culture to the Shuffle. Check out these Brasil Shufflers using skipping ropes and shuffling, it's excellent. Brilliant skills.

Corda de Rua - Melbourne Shuffle. 19 May 2008

My god I know this stuff, people do it in Seattle too.

hehe, they sure do Purpurrot_0 they probably look like this in a recent Seattle shuffle meet up

http://melbourneshuffleoldskool.blogspot.com/2008/06/seattle-shuffle-meet-up-part-1.html