1. Get on your favorite shoes

Shoes are definitely an important factor when shuffling. A good shoe means that it fits nice and tight and doesn’t slip off. My favorite kinds of shoes are ones that have a thick sole, that way, it acts as a support for your own shuffling. Sneakers are also really great since the soles are nice and flat, which makes gliding and sliding a lot easier. The shoes I’m wearing are the Euphoria Reflective Sneakers which are not only sturdy, but they look super cute too! 

2. Turn up your favorite tunes

Grab your speakers and turn on your favorite playlist! Having your favorite songs can get you in the zone. Some recommendations for music would be playing house, techno, bass house or trance tracks. Most of these tracks are in the 128 bpm which is the perfect speed to shuffle to. If you need some recommendations for tracks, look up house playlists or shuffle playlists on SoundCloud or Spotify; there’s usually tons of different tracks that you can find. Here is a playlist with some good tracks on SoundCloud.

3. Learn a Few Shuffling Basics:

The Running Man

Shuffling consists of similar moves with your feet. To learn how to shuffle, begin with learning how to do the running man. This is the move that acts as the intro to get you used to shuffling. The move consists of four basic steps. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do the running man.

My trick to learning the running man was using shapes. 

1.) You start off with your feet spread out and image making a triangle. This is the first step. I had my left leg in front and my right leg in the back. 

2.) The next step is to bring your left leg to the center and at the same time, bring your right leg up to form a smaller triangle. 

3.) The third step is similar to repeating the first two steps, and this time you’ll bring your left leg to the back and your right leg down to the front to form a larger triangle again. 

4.) The final step is to bring your right leg to the center and at the same time, bring your left leg up to form another smaller triangle. 

With these four steps, you can learn how to do the running man, which will serve as the foundation for many of the other moves that you’ll learn later on. It’s important to get this move down because once you do, you’ll have the rhythm spot on which then you can start adding other moves to cut shapes! 

Cutting Shapes Basics: Leg Twists

Cutting shapes is the term for the dance where it involves a lot of leg twists aka Charleston dance move rather than the running man. Learning how to do the Charleston will allow you to know the foundation for many other cutting techniques. I like to call these leg twists since it involves more in and out moves using your heel and toes rather than running in place. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to start doing some of the basic moves for cutting shapes.

1.) Start with your legs shoulder-width apart and point your toes inwards. 

2.) The next step requires two parts, first cross your right foot in front of your left foot and at the same time, point the toes outwards. 

3.) From the previous step, return back to the first step’s position with the feet apart and toes pointing inwards. 

4.) The final step is to put all your weight on the heels of your toes and point your toes outward.

Repeating these steps will help you get the hang of this motion which is common to cutting shape moves! 

Shuffling for me is a way to express my energy at festivals and raves. Being inside shuffle circles is a really amazing experience and opportunity to meet lots of new ravers as well! Inside the shuffle circle, you get to see all different kinds of shuffle and cutting shape techniques and everyone does it differently. I recommend learning these basic moves first and getting them down. Once you’ve mastered these moves, learning new ones should be a breeze.