The Melbourne Shuffler: A portrait of eclectics & the evolution of PLUR through dance

Place: Lunacy Party @ Checkpoint Charlie, Melbourne
Year: 1988
The Opening Scene: Hardware’s Richie Rich and his crew are shown a few movements of a dance that has now through time snow-balled and evolved into the dance worlds “greatest wonder” of all time and has lovingly grown to become what we now know as “The Melbourne Shuffle”.

This unique form of freestyle dance has been exclusive to us Melbournites for over a Decade and is now being catapulted onto the Global arena, not only through the jet-setting Melbournites and the spirit of the dancers but also through a group known as Underground Epidemic Productions which is currently filming a Documentary titled “The Melbourne Shuffler” which is due out on DVD in 2005.

This interest in our unique style of dance is on the verge of exploding with people from the rest of the country and around the globe wanting to know more about it, its culture, its history and how to learn it.

Before mass hysteria struck the world; in respects to wanting to know more about us Melbournites, our eclectic rave culture and the unique dance at the forefront of it all.

This chord had already struck deep in the hearts of all of us that have grown up in Melbourne’s rave/youth culture of the early 90’s, but none more so than for 3 men in particular, who have embarked on a journey to capture and promote this art of dancing and self-expression and to ensure that the Melbourne Shuffle stays fresh and continues to grow and evolve not just on a local scale but on a global one.

Place: Melbourne
Year: 2004
Scene1, The Vision: Our story begins with Stephen Coles and Michael & David Knispel, who are the owners of Underground Epidemic Productions.

The team at UEP first got involved in the scene back in 1998 and witnessed its slow evolution and commercialisation. Originally the UEP team started a clothing label called BKSN which later dissolved in 2002. The brand was aimed at creating clothing for partygoers who did not wish to wear stereotypical rave clothing (eg. Glow in the dark/fluffy gear etc.) but rather a more hip-hop influenced fashion (eg. Caps, hoodies etc). The team had an idea to help advertise the brand and were going to make a video of all Melbourne’s best dancers wearing their clothing.

According to David Knispel, “The inspiration was thought of after watching our friends independent skate videos and relating it to shuffling and the original idea of making a skate-video-esque documentary on the Shuffle was actually thought of by Mike.”

“Then after researching the idea more in depth, we decided to move focus from the clothing industry and put all our energies and resources into a Melbourne Shuffler DVD. The idea has grown greatly from its humble first conception and now will be used to educate the world on the underground phenomenon known as the Melbourne Shuffle.”

“With our production we wanted to capture the scene before it disappeared and became different from what we loved. The idea is to promote dancing and self-expression through dance and the “love not war” ideals of rave culture. The entire team works together to film, edit, promote, network, research and market the documentary.

“We have the philosophy to help others and receive help back. For instance all people involved in the documentary such as the producers, organisers, label owners, DJ’s, VJs etc. provide their ideas, experience and expertise and in return they will also receive public promotion, coverage and recognition.”

“The key strategy is to get many people involved injecting their influence into our production, so as to make this documentary made by Melbournites, not just the three UEP members. We are aware that we don’t know everything about the scene, it’s the history, the music and the people. “

The response to the project has been immense and has propelled the documentary’s progression from a small idea to its current status with Organisers, DJ’s, Producers, Dancers and Partygoers extremely interested and excited about the idea and eager to play a part in its development. So far, the production has been done on a very low budget and the UEP team are currently also searching for investment or sponsorship to help in the final stages of distribution and possibly a transfer to film to enter in film festivals.

The Team have currently been filming for the last 6 months and are (thankfully J ) on schedule with filming due to be completed around New Years Day 2005.

Almost all the clubs & events have been helpful and opened their doors for this historical project, allowing the vision of this documentary to be both personally and creatively achieved by the UEP boys.

According to David, “Our Vision is to promote dance and expression through dance, to encourage the rave ideals of PLUR : PEACE, LOVE, UNITY, RESPECT”

“We also wish to educate up and coming ravers on how to party safely & how to evolve their dance style and make it original and to open up discussion(s) and opinions about what the shuffle really is, different styles of shuffling, how to shuffle, how to organise an event, The History, Evolution & The future of the shuffle.”

“With this we also wish to promote Melbourne’s DJs, Parties and the Music to show how eclectic the Melbourne electronic scene is. We hope to achieve all of this and are working hard to incorporate all of these elements into the documentary.” “We use our website (www.melbourneshuffler.com) as a communication portal to the public and have a forum for open discussion on what our peers want to see.”

Scene 2, A work in progress: Since there has never been a work in progress of this sort in our humble city or anywhere else for that matter, this is truly an exciting time in the history of our dance culture. In addition to this, the Melbourne Shuffler project would have no life if it wasn’t for the one key factor behind it all, The Dancers.

And with the enthusiasm for the shuffle coming from the heart of all those involved, the response from the dancers in particular has been amazing and very supportive of the project.  “Most of the time, when we turn on our portable light it creates a buzz and attracts many shufflers and onlookers” says David.

“The basic technique used is to scout dancers first and then find a suitable area with space to shoot. The dancers take turns in exhibiting their individual styles while encouraging each other and the most successful shoots have been performed when there is a total cohesive effort such as special lighting, crew passes for the UEP team and designated shooting areas eg. On-stage dancing.”

In saying that, David also brings us to the cold hard reality of this project which includes all the highs and lows.  “Some of the major difficulties associated with this project are the basic logistics of filming inside a rave/club/event due to the frantic atmosphere and dark venues. This includes lighting, crowd movement, and room for shooting, communication and promotion over the loud music.”

“We use a portable light system in most situations, which increases the quality of the shot and excites the surrounding crowd giving it an exhibition feel.  Also, when possible, we discuss with the lighting teams so as to create first-rate environments for shooting, so we have overcome all the problems with a fast learning curve by getting suitable portable lighting, analysing and discussing the footage after each event and making small changes to our strategies.” 

“Nevertheless, it’s still pretty hectic but fun to do and we always try to remain positive, with one of our most memorable moments whilst filming being recently at G.O.D Halloween party at the Hi-Fi Bar.”

“G.O.D founder St Luke allowed us to utilise the front stage to exhibit each dancer one by one allowing them to rock the party. It really added to the parties’ atmosphere and gave the dancers a great experience and adrenaline rush.”

“Then again on the flipside, when we filmed our good friend Will Edwards party Redline at Tatou with Nick Sentience. Our camera failed and broke down after half an hour and we got no footage at all. We were really disappointed because it was a great party, great music and great dancers.”

“On top of that, we currently have no footage from the old school “Classic Shuffle” but are in the process of searching for any old footage we can get our hands on. Eg. Docklands Raves, Madass, Mansion, Every Picture, Global Village, Technosis etc. So on that note…Any body who has old footage, photos or stories, please email us at uep@uep.com.au”  

“And after all of this we have to consider the music as all music played in the clubs is copyrighted and we are unable to use it in the eventual DVD release. Therefore we have decided to create a Soundtrack solely produced by Melbourne talent, which will also act as a launching pad to promote the Melbourne sound.”

“The musical genre’s that will be covered in the DVD will vary from hard house, NRG, breaks, trance, hard trance, techno, psy trance, acid house, d’n’b and a mergence of these genre’s.  We will show that the Melbourne scene is highly eclectic in its musical tastes and how this influences different styles of electronic dancing within Melbourne eg. Shuffling to breaks, psy trance and hard house etc.”

“We hope to show the view from the Melbournite’s perspective on this issue within the documentary because there has been much discussion on what you can shuffle to and where the shuffle exists. And before anyone else asks as we do get asked this question at every party we film at, we wish to set the record straight YES we do dance and have been dancing for about 6 years. When we first started we weren’t aware of the “shuffle” we just called good dancers “Rockerz” and we will definitely make an appearance in the end production.”

Scene 3, The here, now and the future: The “Melbourne Shuffler” aims to be a fully informative and integrated audio/visual work of art with a lot of key special features never before considered let alone attempted on such a scale and will be including features such as interviews with Garth (Smile Police), Scott Alert (HK), Kelsta (HK), Ed Real (Nukleuz), Richie Rich (Hardware), DJ Compound, Ben Kakoschke, Master Kaos (Bass Station), Lighter Squad, a HEAP of shufflers and many, many more to be booked.

The DVD will also include features such as a Multi-angle DJ lesson, A special featurette titled “A Day in the life of Ben Kakoschke”, DJ’s/Promoters, How to organize your own Party (with advice from Melbourne’s best), How to Shuffle, A VJ Show, Behind the scenes footage, The Running Man & other styles of Shuffle, The History of the Shuffle and heaps more special features

With The Melbourne Shuffler DVD nearing completion, you would think that the UEP crew would be taking a nice long rest to revel in the fruition of their hardwork, however think again as these boys have more in store for us. We have been assured that UEP will begin work on their second documentary called “Jaw Gymnastics” and will be releasing more information on that in the coming year.

But before they embark on yet another journey in film, David says, ”We are currently investigating the potential of an International Melbourne Shuffler Tour to exhibit the shufflers on front stages, supported by Melbourne DJ’s. UEP also plans to branch out into Feature Films after the release of our first two documentaries, check back at www.uep.com.au early next year for details.”

I’m sure I can speak on behalf of myself, ITM and Melbourne that we have no doubt that you will put Melbourne, The Shuffle and the Music on the World Map and carve us into the pages of History with your effort. I salute you in your endeavours and cannot wait to see what the future holds for us Eclectic Melbournites and all that comes with us. 

“The Melbourne Shuffler” is due out on DVD in 2005.

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