As some of you might already know, I work as a DJ in Sydney at night when I'm not working for Hot4s during the day, therefore I get to see all types of crazy dancing executed by the punters. But none have intrigued and fascinated me more than what they dub "The Melbourne Shuffle" or "Shuffle" for short. Now, the reason why I became a DJ was because even though I'm totally in love with music, I can't dance.

Nothing amazes me more than standing on the stage doing my thing, dropping a really huge track and then seeing the crowd go absolutely bananas Shuffling around the dancefloor. Many thoughts go through my mind such as "How the hell do they do that without tripping over or running into eachother?" and "What are these kids on?". Until recently, this has been an underground form of dance, but thanks to the new wave of electronic dance music on our shores all the young kids are partaking in this odd form of movement.

Then it got me thinking, where did this all start? I scoured the internets and came up with the following:

- It was born in the early 1980's and was originally only done to techno music, but has now progressed onto techno, trance and electro (any fast pace kind of tune)
- In the mid to late 1990's the Melbourne Shuffle was then determined by the distinct heel to toe movement of the dance
- The name comes from overseas DJs, partygoers, visitors and media trying to describe the phenomenon and was documented in media by Sonic Animation's Rupert Keiller
- You can purchase the "Melbourne Shuffle" documentary on DVD, it was made in 2002 and was released in 2005

If you want to learn the basics let BigMilan take you slowly and smoothly through the steps, which will have you Melbourne Shuffling in no time!

I personally think that people look a bit wanky doing this dance, but hey that's just my opinion.