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In his small home studio on the outskirts of Jakarta, Muhammad Andri Noor is trying to impart his dancing skills to his eager students. The 20-year-old instructor isn’t showing his disciples the moves, though – he’s telling them about it.

Andri is teaching a new style that has been seen in clubs and on the street. He’s an expert on the “shuffle dance,” the latest trend to hit Indonesia.

“It’s a different kind of dance that is more about feeling than theories and skills,” Andri said from his home and teaching space in Pamulang, Banten.

While the effectiveness of Andri’s dialogue-heavy teaching technique is up for debate, the influx of young students (mostly children) who come to him for some shuffling guidance speaks volumes about the dance’s viral spread across the country.

In the past few years, Indonesians have taken to the shuffle dance, but it’s far from new. Originally called the “Melbourne Shuffle,” the dance originated from the club and rave scene in Melbourne, Australia, in the late 1980s.

Though it has many variants, the main characteristics of the shuffle dance are basic movements that revolve around fast heel-to-toe action, as well as other dance styles mostly associated with electronic dance music, including the incorporation of expressive hand movements.

Shuffling’s influences have been seen for quite sometime in pop culture. One varation is called “floating,” which gives the illusion that the dancer is slickly “floating” across the floor, while the body moves in seemingly-unnatural directions. Michael Jackson’s famous “Moonwalk” technique is an approximation of this style.

“The Running Man” is another widely known shuffle dance technique, giving the semi-comical effect of the dancer moving their body as if running yet staying in one spot. The energetic nature of the dance was further popularized by 1990s rap stars such as MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice.

Yuspi Rio Adithya, or simply Adhit, who does public relations for the shuffle dance community Indo Rockers, said shuffle dancers were often referred to as “rockers,” a term that refers to the dance’s energetic nature which makes it seem like the participants are practically convulsing. The community, which Adhit co-founded with four friends, is credited as Indonesia’s shuffle dance central – the first local community to import the dance to Indonesian shores.

Though Indo Rockers unofficially formed in 2007, it was not until 2009 that its five founders really came together to create the biggest shuffle dance community in the country. Today, it has more than 3,000 members across the country, with about 1,000 from Jakarta.

“[The five co-founders] met through YouTube where we were commenting on each others’ shuffling videos, as well as other similar dance videos,” Adhit said.

“We decided to meet up, and the rest is history.”

Adhit said Indo Rockers’ swift popularity was due to shuffle dance being performed “in the name of love and true expression. You just can’t help but enjoy it.” He compares the energy used while shuffle dancing to running on a treadmill.

By 2010, Indo Rockers was holding events centered on shuffle dancing, and the dance spread like wildfire. There are now multiple shuffle communities across the country, with memberships ranging from less than 10 to the thousands.

Andri said a video on a friend’s cell phone got him interested in the dance. He immediately threw himself into a intensive study of tutorial videos on YouTube and decided to form the Crazy Shuffle Association with some of his close friends in October 2010 (“10/10/10,” Andri explained gleefully).

“It was the mixture of sports and dancing that got to me. It was also relatively easy to learn,” Andri said, who, like many other “new” shuffle dancers, previously had zero interest in dancing or club music prior to the shuffle.

“I was a bomber [graffiti artist] and I played a lot of futsal [indoor football].”

CSA started with four people including Andri, and it has 37 formal members today who actively perform live and on TV shows. While 37 may not seem like a huge number, it is already too many for Andri, who acts as the group’s de facto manager and has to arrange each of their performances and travel arrangements.

When the 37 dancers perform live — as CSA did recently on Global TV — it is already quiet a sight. Thoroughly busy, Andri is far from eager to leaf through the hundreds of submitted application forms that are still waiting to be reviewed.

CSA’s Facebook page has more than 1,500 “likes,” with many of the applicants messaging Andri and asking how they can join the group.

The “Basiru of Shuffle” community was also influenced by the Indo Rockers. Just formed on Feb. 16 by teenager Landy Triasto (who goes by Sendy), the club has grown from three members, to 42 people. Like Andri, Sendy learned about the dance through friends’ videos.

“It’s energetic, it looks cool, it involves sports and you get to meet a lot of new people through it,” Sendy said, who along with his girlfriend’s younger brother, 15-year-old Jordin Maulana, named their new club “Basiru” as a tribute to Sendy’s grandfather who “had a cool name,” as his friends had succinctly put it.

Jordin, who knew nothing about dancing, said that when he first started, he was “embarrassed” to perform in front of other people.

“But as I progressed, I’m just confident and having a blast performing in front of an audience,” Jordin said, adding that the audience’s applause “fires me up.”

For many of its participants, the shuffle dance community has become much more than a dance club. Though many of its members come from different background and age groups (“There are little children doing it also,” Sendy said), many dancers have built a family around the community.

Basiru has arranged charity projects where they use the money from performances to buy food for the needy, Sendy said.

For now, the popularity of shuffle dancing is still growing, and through its multiple communities, looks like it’s ready to dominate dance floors

“I love it,” Jordin said. “It’s one dance that is always festive.”


Crazy Shuffle Association and Basiru of Shuffle are on Facebook; or go to www.indorockers.com