IF you’ve ever been to Bukit Bintang on a Saturday, you probably know about the shufflers -- the 60 or something KL-lite kids that gather outside Maybank on Jalan Bukit Bintang in their gangs, and show off their shuffling skills. Every weekend they gather at 5pm to contribute to the unpredictable pulse of the streets.

Then, enter Moe Satt, Sharon Chin, Aisyah Baharuddin, Intan Rafiza Abu Bakar, Rahmat Haron, and Shaifuddin Mamat, with their contribution to the hectic entertainment of Star Hill -- Open Street | Buka Jalan. For a while it seemed the performance would not go on, as the shufflers grew more rowdy, and took up more and more street-corner space.

In the end, Sharon Chin managed to woo them to her side, asking them to teach her a few steps, and then getting them to watch the performance. Considering the shufflers’ reactions, one could consider the invitation a mistake, whilst others might call it pure genius. Here were five artists on the shufflers’ turf doing things the shufflers’ had never seen before.

The performance was pierced by moans of “Buat ape ni? Bodohnye makan paper tu” and “bosan doh”. But yet, the shufflers stayed. Were they unwittingly partaking in the spectacle of their own urban upbringing? Were they merely stupefied by the strange antics of the artists?

Whatever it is, as the show ended, and the shufflers turned away, one of them cried in bewilderment, “Ala, buang masa aje. Jom, shuffle doh!”

~~~

Yasmin Zetti Martin writes for Kakiseni.

Open Street | Buka Jalan happened at Bukit Bintang KL Monorail Station, Jalan Sultan Ismail, near the Jalan Sultan Ismail - Jalan Bukit Bintang intersection, KL on Sat 29 Mar 2008 (6pm).