As it often happens in Jamaica, some dancers start to argue about who created a certain step, or about the similarity that some steps have between them. One of these cases was the one between Shelly Xpressionz (Xpressionz Family) and Tamara Graham (Outshine Girls) and their steps “Shelly Bounce” and “Bruk Back”.

“Shelly Bounce” was born years ago, and even if it has not been promoted that much by the Xpression Family, it was already known by most of the dancers when Tamara introduced the “Bruk Back” in 2015, on Razor B song “Bruck fi mi back”, very similar to the other.

The difference between the two steps is that in “Bruk Back” the move is more “popping”, more “twitching” compared to “Shelly Bounce” that is, indeed, more “bouncing”.

The real “war” between the girls and their relative supporters, started after the sharing of an Instagram video where the dancer was showing the new step. Rumors says that Tamara went to a dancehall class, where Shelly was the teacher, and learned the “Shelly Bounce” a couple of days before releasing the video.

The Xpression family started to stand up for her, re-sharing all the old videos showing that the step already existed in the past and how much it looked like the “new” one. Even Elephant Man released the song “Shelly Bounce” and dancers from all over the globe recorded supporting videos with different variations and routines.

On the other side, Tamara and the Outshine Girls defended themselves saying that they were inspired by Shelly for “Bruk Back”, but it would have been an upgrade of “Shelly Bounce”, a younger and more captivating version of that step but, of course, this justification was not enough to reconcile the dancers.

No doubt that “Bruk Back” is one of the most danced steps all around the world, all the girls and dancehall queens (as Nickeisha, Sher etc..) get excited showing this step during Jamaican parties.

What we can do from so far is, respectfully accept both steps and their variations and differences, being thankful to an amazing veteran like Shelly but, also being open towards new dancers that are able to start a thing with their personality and creativity.