The Melbourne shuffle is a rave dance that developed in Melbourne, Australia, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[1][2] The dance moves involve a fast heel-and-toe movement or T-step, combined with a variation of the running man coupled with a matching arm action.[1] The dance is improvised and involves "repeatedly shuffling your feet inwards, then outwards, while thrusting your arms up and down, or side to side, in time with the beat". Other moves can be incorporated including 360-degree spins and jumps and slides.[2]
During the Melbourne shuffle's heyday in the 1990s and 2000s, the dance was a common sight at Melbourne clubs Hard Kandy, Bubble, Xpress at Chasers, Heat, Mercury Lounge, Viper, Two Tribes at Chasers and PHD.[1] Melbourne's first techno dance parties—Biology, Hardware, and Every Picture Tells a Story—were also popular with Melbourne shuffle practitioners.[3]
Technique
T-stepA slowed down Running Man
The dance is improvised and involves "repeatedly shuffling your feet inwards, then outwards, while thrusting your arms up and down, or side to side, in time with the beat". 360-degree spins, jumps and slides are also incorporated.[2] It is often associated with another style of dance, "cutting shapes". As described by Vice Media, the underlying dance moves "involve the T-step, combined with a variation of the running man".[1]
Some dancers sprinkle talcum powder or apply liquid to the floor beneath their feet to help them slide more easily.[2]
Popularity outside Melbourne
In 2009, the German hard dance group Scooter released the single "J'adore Hardcore", its music video featuring dancers Pae (Missaghi Peyman) and Sarah Miatt performing the Melbourne shuffle on the streets of Melbourne. Two years later, American dance music duo LMFAO also referenced the shuffle with their hit "Party Rock Anthem".
While the Melbourne shuffle grew in popularity outside Australia, a variant of shuffling emerged in the United Kingdom, which would go on to be referred to as "cutting shapes" by 2012.[4]
In 2014, researchers at Brown University named a new computer security algorithm after the Melbourne shuffle. The algorithm deletes traces of users' access on cloud servers by shuffling the location of data on those servers.[5]
