Melbourne Shuffle Girls

Girls made up about half of the shufflers in the oldskool era, these days there's hardly any. One main reason is the current hardstyle music and shuffle steps.

We'll state the obvious here, hardstyle does a lot of pounding to girls breasts. Yes might be fun for guys (and some girls ) to watch, but it's mighty uncomfortable for girls and can cause a lot of tearing. Just as a lot of moves give guys testicles a lot of soreness (and a sudden high voice) so they avoid them.

Basically if these things, for both guys and girls, are going to bounce, they need to bounce in time with the rest of your body. Otherwise there's serious pain and realistic injury.

Guys testicles are smaller than girls breasts, which means less gravity issues in the bounce, so jump and hardstyle's quick short sharp bounce moves are no real drama for guys, but a nightmare for girls. Similarly you won't see a lot of guys doing star jumps, splits or leg scissor type moves, without holding their breath and praying, where the girls will give the guys a 'what's your problem, just do it' look.

Dancing is a high level athletic activity, and it's not just your legs and feet you need to take care of, your spine takes a pounding, your knees take a pounding, your neck and arms too. Professional dancers at an elite level, have about the same professional career life span as elite professional athletes. You peak at 25 years old, you retire by 30.

If you're going to get an injury from dancing it will be similar to a sporting injury - intense.

So take care, stretch and warm up and warm down - always. Vary your moves from hard to smooth/fluid. Be very careful with bursts of energy, that you don't go in cold or over stretch, which can rip muscles and tendons.

Check out some exercises for dancers, sports and martial arts, and do them. You'll dance better, avoid injury and you'll keep on dancing for years to come.

If you watch the girls dancing in the oldskool vids, you'll find more of a smooth shuffle flow, and liquid moves, mostly to trance and acid, which was common at dance parties. Many of the oldskool girls had recreational ballet and tap training from when they were about 6 years old. The guys came from a hip-hop or martial arts background, so their moves were more burst like. That's not to say girls didn't get 'physical' shuffling, girls with gymnastics backgrounds could dance the guys into the ground.

The two mixed to become the Melbourne Shuffle, but everyone danced according to their body type. Guys with weight lifting physiques don't have the same flexibility as long distance runners. The same goes with girls. That's why there's so much variation.

I worked for many years (as music composer and video artist) with a Melbourne based contemporary dance company called Mixed Company, with male director, Malaysian born Tony Yap. There were a number of western dancers male and female, of all body types, and female butoh dancer, Japanese born Umi Umimare. Not only did we consciously explore all our different cultural attitudes, taboo's, peculiarities etc, but the obvious genetic and gender difference's with different body types. Everyone had strengths and weaknesses.

So keep this in mind when you do the Melbourne Shuffle. We love diversity in the Melbourne Shuffle. Develop what best works for you. It's just about different body types and dancing sensibly, and it's all the Melbourne Shuffle.

There's a lot of girls getting back into the Shuffle scene now, which is fantastic to see. The guys love it too and are generally happy to show their girlfriends (and hope-to-soon-be girlfriends) some moves. And of course the girls are more than capable to work it out themselves, and show the guys some moves!

Here's a sample of what's happening on youtube, some are beginners, some more experienced, but they're all great Melbourne Shuffle Girls.

First here’s some oldskool girls and Russian girls shuffling from Global Shuffle 1

 

Girl DOing HArdstyleZ

SHUFFLE (cute)

anna carol joanne shuffle

Llttle Girl Melbourne Shuffle

RAVER GIRL'S in JAPAN

girls shuffle too

shuffle girls sabrina and claudia shufflen

chIcK ShUffleZ at B'dAy

Sarah shuffling (my g/f)