Dirty dancing
By Larry Hart - Daily Gazette, Feb 1921
A veteran dancing master of St. Louis announced the closing of his dance hall to all public dances “until public tastes and manners improve.”
Professor F. Lester Caindenin declared that public dancing in the past several months had become more immoral and indecent than at any time in the last 30 years....
This was the Prohibition Era, the beginning of the Roaring Twenties, and though things would be getting a lot livelier in a few more years, the dancing master was already fed up.
One of his grievances was against the “toddle” or “shuffle” craze, which he said drove decent people off the dance floor. He also said the time had come when dance hall proprietors “must keep a guard at their door to watch “spooners” in automobiles at the curb.
“When young girls come to dances with their bodices cut as low and their skirts as high as possible, and the young men enter the ballroom with whiskey flasks on their hips and a pint or two under their belts, and when such dances as “toddle” and “shuffle” are tolerated, the result is something hard to picture in printable terms,” Caindenin said.
>> Naa that's cool Professor, we can picture it ;) Something like this :
Tasty - Commerce Club. Garry Shepherd 1994
So there ya go folks, 87 years later Shufflers are still driving 'decent people' off the dance floor :)
The lesson we have learned here is simple and quite nice to know :)
You can't stop Shufflers Shuffling!!
Go on...have a little shuffle, just for the Prof ;)
Technology powered and empowered the oldskool. It was the dawn of the digital age, even the music was called Techno :)
We embraced technology as a welcomed friend
Today it's still the same. The past few years the Shuffle has seen the rise of a new genre of shuffling...Youtube.
While most are simple documentation's, the art of the VJ has found a new home too. We broadcast our early parties with our own TV Station. Nice if you've got the resources to do that ;) It gave VJ's the chance to seriously get down to creating video art works.
Today Youtube gives the Shuffle VJ the same opportunities as well as a global audience, instead of just Melbourne.
It's great to see the genre growing. Seeing how VJ's around the world are responding to the Shuffle in a creative way.
For example here's a great new clip from Shifter with a cinematic stylistic theme. Very very nice edit, I-Qal. Well done indeed ;) Nice to see some shots of Malaysia too.
Check it out...
After the whole 3 long years Melbourne Shuffling, it is time to unite Kuching's Shufflers since they are more than 100 shufflers around town and building up close relationships amongst shufflers is defnately gna bring the shuffling into a more positive side and the local music enthusiatic scene to a wider screen. 2 heads are always better than one.
So, here we are taking initiative to organize a meet up. It's similiar to blogger's meet up and there will be 30 minutes short shuffling session after the entire meetup sessions (which i may predict most of the people would come just for that) but please understand that the main purpose is to get to know each other and unite all as one not as an organisation but as Kuchignites.
When you post the videos in youtube, join a competition, do performances, attending Raves, meeting shufflers in other states or country, it actually represent every each one of us from Kuching. And fark yeah, it does matter! And so... we care and happy to share knowledge, experience and opinion.
On top of that, there's no entrance fee but you are required to buy a drink upon entry. The drink price are ranging from RM4.00 to RM10++. Non-alcoholic :P
Title : 1st Kuching's Melbourne Shufflers Meetup
Date : 1st March 2008 Time : 2pm - 5pm
Venue : 1st Floor Khatulistiwa Cafe
Dress Code : T-Shirt & Jean (On a Sunny Day, No Hoodies unless if it rains)
Entrance Fee : The entrance is free however, please bring enough cash for yourself at least for a drink or have your late lunch there to support the event venue itself so next time, we can organize more meet ups in the future!
Who To Attend : Every Melbourne Shuffle in town. (Whether you have a group or not, it doesn't matter. Everyone is invited)
OBJECTIVE Keep Melbourne Shuffle ALIVE and improve the local scene
PROGRAMME 1) Team or Group or Self (Freelance) introduction 2) Sharing ideas and Possible park shuffles and monthly meet up 3) Monthly Special Announcement (Competition or performances) 4) 30 minutes meet up shuffling sessions
THE DO’S AND DON’T
Do’s Don’t Bring Melbourne Shufflers Bring people that don’t shuffle Group Banner or introduction material Sharp Object & Fighting Ask related questions Drugs and Alcohol Share your bright ideas I am better than you look and pattern Cooperative Do Lame Jokes Sporting Come and don’t order anything Bring Personal Matter to the meet up Think you are a noob so you can’t come Treat the meet up as your dating location SMOKE in the meet up (Go Outside don’t influence others) Throw rubbish around and spit Wonder to 2nd floor and other closed sections NOTE: THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE STRICTLY HAS THE RIGHT TO BAN OR SUSPEND ATTENDEES THAT DO NOT FOLLOW THE DO'S AND DONT'S.
.:MEET UP TO UNITE NOT IMPRESS:.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………............................................................... Please register your group (group name & no of people attending) or yourself by calling or emailing the Shufflers
Below by 27th February 2008: - Alicia (Tribezone) aliciakcng@hotmail.com Ah Pui (Shuffler R’ Us) finzza@hotmail.com Wallace (Hazard Minors) wallacewong87@hotmail.com
So you've got a Shuffle team, or you're wanting to join a team? Just how do you run a team? You want to find out more about other teams around the world, where are their sites or when are their next events?
Well here's a new forum, just for you, it's Team Friendly, it's world wide, it's any language, we won't get upset if you're on other forums either, take it easy and spread it 'round.
It's for teams by teams, any style, any genre, any age, any ability, any country, any where ...I think you get the picture :)))
Here's some starter threads, please feel free to join, contribute or just check out the gossip in:
The New MSO FORUM
http://groups.google.com/group/melbourneshuffleoldskool
Starter threads:
TEAM TROUBLES
TEAM MEMBER WANTED
TEAM WANTED
TEAM NEWS
Well here it is, the earliest known classic Melbourne Shuffle footage to date. 31 August 1991, at the Sarah Sands Hotel in Melbourne.
Not the first Shuffler that we know of, rather the earliest video footage we know of. We'll try to stop a few arguments here before we get started ;)
I shot this. It was a new night that opened and closed on that night. About 800 people turned up to the 3 level event, this footage is on the main dance floor.
It was an indie rock venue, and the pub owner lost money because nobody drank any beer. He complained 'Everybody's drinking water, I had to send home 6 bar staff."
The Sarah Sands was the sort of Hotel that had lunchtime strip shows in the front bar on the pool tables, with whipped cream.
People were just refilling water bottles in the washrooms. The pub owner even turned off the water to force people to buy beer and bottled water ! True
So here's the face of the Shuffler. I believe it's Aslan, a well known Shuffler in the two dozen or so hardcore shufflers during the Melbourne Shuffle's creation. Any oldskoolers who can verify it's Aslan, your comments are welcomed :)
I've got about 8 mins of raw camera footage so you can hear the music and try to get a feel of a very early rave done Melbourne Style.
This is how the Shuffle in all it's forms spread. Individual dancers in a crowd shuffling. The style that's commonly known today we generally call the 'classic' Shuffle. But there were as many variations as there were Shufflers. You mixed up the styles to suit your mood thru the night.
This footage is at 3am after a few hours of live acts on stage. So it's the wind down set and the crowd has thinned out, making space for the Shuffle Brigade to slink their way across the dance floor.
The little old lady is from the CWA (Country Womens Association) selling lollies (candy) to the Shufflers at 3am. She regularly came to raise charity money for the CWA. 'I know the young people like to eat them at this hour of the night' she told me, she was right ;) Munchee time home delivered ! She sold out in about 30 minutes.
Got some really nice dance footage of two other well known Shufflers. (Pic Below) The young lady, I remember well, but have forgotten her name, starts with an S, I think. She was involved in the fashion industry and regularly flew between New York and Melbourne for a fashion magazine ?
The guy on the right is old friend Paul Gaffney / DJ Krusty / Eugene. Paul had a great pink Buick (very big heavy car) which I helped push start on many a morning after a party. It was always getting a flat battery :)
Krusty's long been involved with Green Ant and Rainbow Serpent parties.
NB: Earliest known Melbourne Shuffle footage can now be seen in the GLOBAL SHUFFLE movie. www.globalshuffle.com
A few days ago there was posted what appears to be the first commercial music video mentioning the Melbourne Shuffle.
Not a bad effort anyways. It would be great to know who the music was recorded by, who the rapper was, and who the dancers are - credits please :) Anyone know ?
The Vid. A note to the video makers for future reference, we can't see the feet, dark pants on dark background - not good. That's the point of a shuffle vid. You got the tops okay, faces etc, but without the feet, you're going nowheres :)
Which is why we invented these things called 'Phats' (pic left) when we invented the Shuffle back in the early 1990's
So you can see the legs move in a dark environment. That's more important to Shufflers than seeing someone's face. But that's cool can't know everything at once ;) This is Cript Ballas wearing great phats in the pic above.
The Music. Shuffle music traditionally does not have rap, we have a SHUT UP AND SHUFFLE ethic, but it kinda works in this commercial hardstyle form. And they got it right, there is no limit to the music styles you can shuffle to. As the rapper says "hiphop, r+b, mix it up...Melbourne Shuffle"
The Conclusion. It's nice to see our shuffle friends in the Netherlands grabbing the bull by the horns and getting off on the Shuffle!!!
Well done guys and gals, Welcome to the Melbourne Shuffle...more please! ;)
Melbourne Shufflers - The Shuffle.
Update: Just found the info on a Dutch TV show clip (translated) - er Not too sure about the accuracy of the homophobe translation, I think someone's over compensating ;)
Melbourne Shufflers @ Jensen
Melbourne Shufflers @ Jensen - demonstrating the shuffle
Pim one of the Shufflers actually unnecessarily apologised for the vid, but respect for him doing it. It was posted on the MelbShuffle forum
http://www.melbshuffle.com/index.php?topic=10537.0
>>>>>> 0 <<<<<<
This is Pim from The Melbourne Shufflers(with the blocked hat), I just saw your vid and I totally agree, and you have to understand that we do not think we are the best or pro's or stuff.
It's just that Jensen vid, we got thrown on National TV, we weren't happy about that either, we were just practicing the MBS and suddenly we got put up on TV.
I'll explain : Shuffle is done for years in Rotterdam, Holland, that is where we are from, the MBS is here for like a few months, because we were regular shufflers, we got a contract for dancing and an act, so we had to practice and stuff, a lot of media attention came to early and I wasn't happy about it either, because we had to show it in a good way, which we weren't capable off.
Even I learned from your vids also, and I still watch them every day to practice more and more.
Our vid the shuffle is a videoclip and you have to understand that we werent happy about it either how it was edited and stuff, there were much and much better parts of us shufflin but it was not in the vid, we were dissapointed of it, we did not got to tell anything about it.
Me and my teammates are going to make a new vid this week (just a normal vid ) and I was also telling them every day to practice and practice so that we can get some level, becuz how you shuffle over there is like mad, here we will never get that kind of good shufflers sadly.
I'm also dissapointed on all the reactions and edited movies on Youtube(although a lot of them are right), I can understand some of them, but the hate is driven like mad. And no we are not doing this for the money or fame or shit, we just really like shuffling, and we are not pro's or the best, we just like to dance. We didnt even got payed for anything we did ?
I hope someday we can set this straight and u will see we are not that harmful, were just party people over here in Holland that want to kick ass on Hardstyle!
So herefore my apologies, we would rather be helped from you and all the other pro shufflers then burned down. Greetings, Pim
Thanks Pim, no apologies needed, ignore the haters, we all do. BTW 'Off Corso' in Rotterdam featured a retrospective of my video art in 2002, screening all the oldskool shuffle vids from the early 1990's, as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival.
You have NOTHING to apologise for, party people in Holland have been doing it right for a long time, respect.
UPDATE 13 March 2008
I can't believe the fury of comments about these guys (and gal :) ) online, still happening.
A lot of people yelling 'it's not the shuffle' ?? :)
Obviously noobs who are certainly not oldskoolers, or have seen the Shuffle footage I posted in the PHATS! article, from shuffle meet ups in 1995 and the first Kryal castle party in 1995, with lots of people doing these exact same moves.
Anyone who says it's not Shuffling doesn't know what they're talking about :)
Of course it's the Shuffle, I've shown it to lots of oldskoolers and they love it!
It's also inspired local Melbourne oldskoolers to write new tracks and make professional Shuffle vids, even ME! - I'll let you know when it's done.
One respected oldskooler friend in Melbourne even said he had to get up and bust a few moves along with it. Had a smile on his face from ear to ear!
We know what they're doing, we don't expect someone who's been Shuffling for 6 months to Shuffle like an oldskooler who's been doing it for 15 years lol, that's just nuts.
So to the Melbourne Shufflers, from the oldskoolers from Melbourne... FANTASTIC !!! Good on ya, and do some more!
I think it's just envy ;) with the haters. They wanted to be the first with a Shuffle anthem and crack the mainstream market with a vid.
Simple solution to that as we say in Melbourne...SHUT UP AND SHUFFLE!! :)
Just get off your arse, stop being such a cry baby and DO IT!
Well done you Melbourne Shufflers, you just got on with it and did it! ...that's the spirit of the Melbourne Oldskool, *two thumbs up*
