With the recent announcement of the highly anticipated Dragonflight expansion to World of Warcraft, Blizzard MMORPG players have learned about the brand new race and class pairing that will be introduced to the game in the coming months: the Dracthyr Evoker. This draconian race is very different in many ways (no pun intended), but it’s their dance that caught the attention of many players: the Dracthyrs practice the Shuffle ! Some have even tried to reproduce it!
Dance in World of Warcraft
In Azeroth, the mortal races have always had rhythm in their blood. From the creation of the game, in 2004, Blizzard had added the possibility to each playable race (and even some non-playable ones for that matter) to dance thanks to the emote /to dance (Where /dance). The dance practiced even varies according to the sex of your character! So, depending on these attributes and after entering this command, your character starts performing dance steps in a loop until you perform another action.
Many were the inspirations of the developers over the years, from the famous Macarena for humans to Billie John for night elf men through Poker face for Worgen women… There’s something for everyone! Here is an exhaustive list of all the dances available in game for the playable races and inspired by real dances or songs:
Dances of the Alliance Races
Human | You Should Be Dancing – Bee Gees |
 human | Macarena – Los Del Rio |
 Dwarf | Ukrainian traditional dance (Gopak) |
 dwarf | Irish traditional dance (Tap Dance) |
 Gnome (Male) | The Bad Touch – Bloodhound Gang |
 Gnome (Women) | Don’t Cha – The Pussycat Dolls (source uncertain) |
 Night Elf (Male) | Billie Jean – Michael Jackson |
 Night Elf (Women) | I’m fed up – Alizée |
 draenei (Male) | Tunak Tunak Tun – Daler Mehndi |
 draenei (Women) | Belly dance inspired by Shakira (particularly Hips Don’t Lie) |
 Worgen (Male) | My Love – Justin Timberlake |
 Worgen (Women) | Poker Face – Lady Gaga |
 Pandaren | Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO |
 pandarene | Carameldansen – Caramella Girls |
 Mechagnome (Man and woman) | Robotboys & Poppin John (Robot Dance) |
 Kul Tiran | Mr. Thiccman |
 Kultirassian | Ballet |
 Dracthyr (Man and woman) | Shuffle |
Horde Race Dances
 orc Orc Mag’har | U Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer |
 orca Mag’har Orc | Back That Thang Up – Juvenile |
 Tauren Highmountain Tauren | Peanut Butter Jelly Time – Buckwheat Boyz |
 Taurene Highmountain Taurene | Electric Boogie – Marcia Griffiths |
 Troll | brazilian martial art (Capoeira) |
 Trolless | Whenever, Wherever – Shakira |
 Undead | head bang and Air-Guitar (Hard Rock and Metal Dances) |
 Undead | Liquid Dance |
 blood elf Void Elf (Alliance) (Male) | Dance from the movie Napoleon Dynamite |
 blood elf Void Elf (Alliance) (Women) | Multiple Dances by Britney Spears (particularly Toxic) |
 Goblin | Crank That – Soulja Boy |
 Goblin | Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) – Beyoncé |
 Pandaren | Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO |
 pandarene | Carameldansen – Caramella Girls |
 Zandalari Troll (Male) | Super Timor Advertising (Ivory Coast) |
 Zandalari Troll (Women) | Gwara Gwara – LAX |
 Vulpera Vulpera | The Fox (What Does The Fox Says?) – Ylvis |
 Dracthyr (Man and woman) | Shuffle |
Dracthyrs: Everyday they’re Shuffling
The Shuffle is, for those who do not have the reference, according to some estimates a dance of African origin literally meaning “drag your feet”. It then evolved to become in the early 80s what is now called the Melbourne Shuffle in reference to the city where the phenomenon took off. The concept, a succession of movements of the foot and the heel, seems simple, yet when practiced by experts it is particularly impressive. You are challenged to reproduce certain movements of certain dancers, you may have some difficulty! Some even specialize in learning this art, Starface_K2 for example !
As with many World of Warcraft races before it, the Dracthyr is no exception to the rule: it must have a unique dance that differentiates it from other races in the game in addition to its exclusive appearance. Blizzard chose to award him the Shuffle, a dance that had its heyday and was a real phenomenon at the beginning of the past decade, thanks in particular to the famous group LMFAO and their song Party Rock Anthem (but not only).
Since it is a particularly technical and complex dance, some experts have chosen to attempt to reproduce the dance of the Dracthyrs. This is particularly the case of Steakloins who posted a video of her on TikTok just two days after the reveal of the Dracthyrs, and in which we can observe her very precisely replicating the dance of WoW’s next race. A piece of news that is as anecdotal as it is amusing and impressive (for a neophyte at least)!
This isn’t the first time Blizzard has taken inspiration from these mesmerizing steps to create the dance of one of World of Warcraft’s playable races. The Pandaren were already in 2012 inspired by the famous band LMFAO and their hit song Party Rock Anthem. Like what, the Shuffle is still present a decade later… And present!