“I want to teach so many people to shuffle,” said Mitchell Sartori, coordinator, and organizer of YVR Shufflers. “I’m looking to build this group up again.”
Every Wednesday, Sartori and others from YVR Shufflers meet at the Robson Square ice skating rink to dance together and teach those who want to learn.
“The rink has been a meeting spot for years for the shuffling community, my first meet was here,” said Sartori. “We realized the ice rink is a better dance floor.”
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down those who passionately met to dance together and with the lift of restrictions meets can start back up in person.
YVR Shufflers isn’t the first group to start meeting downtown. “There have been groups ongoing, far into the past, like 10 years in the past,” said Sartori “All of the people who ran those, they've kind of all dissipated off and gone onto their own thing.”
Sartori felt he needed to grow a shuffling community in Vancouver again. “So, whoever was still around, it was like, oh, I guess I'll just pick it back up again,” he said.
Shuffling first started in the underground rave scene of Australia where it was given the name The Melbourne Shuffle the popular dance exploded with popularity with EDM festival goers and fans worldwide.
“It was in a nice spot where it was, really popular and a lot of people seem to know about it.”
Each week more people would come to meets and want to dance together and those in the group happily give tutorials to Beginners wanting to learn how to shuffle.
“We have people that just walk by and want us to teach them,” said Sartori. “Either they would see it in person, or they see it online and their answer is always ‘Wow, that's cool. I want to learn!' ”
You can find YVR Shufflers Wednesdays at 5 p.m. at the Robson Square Skating Rink as well as on social media. Follow them on Instagram @YVRShufflers and Facebook at YVR Shufflers.
