Para Para exhibition at an Con. Need routine suggestions...

[FAII]

For some reason, the major ParaPara(Paradise) boards are down o_O, so I'm taking this here:

OK, so next month, I'm gonna have a kinda ParaPara panel/performance-thingie at this AnimeCon. I have an hour for this.

So I'm start with a short presentation of Eurobeat and ParaPara, its origins, spread, history and so on.

Then comes an exhibition performance of X number of routines (I'm thinking maybe 5) followed by teaching people two routines step-by-step.

So I need suggestions for the songs to do for the exhibition and which routines to teach them. The routines I'm to teach them have to be easy (obviously) while the ones I'm to exhibit have to be fun-looking, have nice songs and be at least moderately complicated so it won't look like ParaPara requires no skill at all.

So, suggest away (include Artist and which VCD/DVD the routine appears on if possible... if possible, include a link to a video of the routine as well).

Songs up for consideration for the exhibition performance:
(These are based entirely on what routines and songs I like and how much fun I think the routines are. Overly simple ones have been eliminated)
* Dave & Domino - I Believe In You
* dj TAKA feat. Angel - Ultra High Heels
* Anniversary
* Lolita - Everybody Dance
* Christine - Yeah! (using Hinoi Team's routine, but Christine's version)
(tentatively) * Queen 26 - Popcorns & Sex (original routine by myself)
* Jam Jam Jam (kinda too simple-ish, though)
* Monkey Dance (because it's so funny)
* I Wanna Dance (a lot of people know of this song for some reason)
* Niko - Pilot Is The Hero

Songs up for consideration to teach the shmucks:
* Lolita - Romeo & Juliet
* I Wanna Dance
* Anniversary
* Jam Jam Jam
* Ale Japan
* Aishiattemasu?
* Deluxe
* Boom Boom Fire
* Newfield - Moroni - Sinclair - Deltadance.com

I know that the majority of those are from the Para Para Paradise games, but most of my favourite routines are from those games because that's where I first encountered Para Para. Also, the PPP games have some of the easiest, yet fun routines out there .

Comments, suggestions, give them now!

[Nine]

For the song to teach, go with something easy. A song with complex movements will really confuse the audience...especially if they are new to the whole thing. I would try for a song like Deluxe if you want Japanese vocals, Try Me if you want a female vocal, or Ale Japan if you want a male vocal.

For your exibition, just pick songs that you think would be fun to watch. Think about the song as well as the routine. Some tips:

Anime Con-Goers love Japanese music, so try to add some J-Euro, some Eurobeat songs that are sung by the artists but in Japanese (Domino, Nuage - just at the top of my head), Eurobeat songs with Japanese themes (No One Sleep In Tokyo, Night Flight To Tokyo, etc.), music from Initial D and even Eurobeat songs with a cult internet following would be popular (Running i the 90's)

Also, focus on the routines... make sure the routines are fun to watch, don't pair similar routines together... the music may be awesome but if the routines are pretty much a cycle of the same moves, people will get bored.

good luck!

[the_ditz]

I love the routine for Garcon - Super Kaiser. If anything would make me start parapara, it would be that routine, especially cos the chorus is so awesome!

[Mikaeru]

Going along with what Nine said, go for anything that was covered by a J-pop group. Did Sticky Tricky & Bang, and Yeah at a con last year, and even though we used the original versions, we still noticed people doing the routine too, cause of Hinoi Team. They just covered Dancin' Baby (although with a different and really crappy routine), so that could be worth a shot.

There's also popular songs that have been eurobeat mixed. Dragostea Din Tea and Chocolate (latter of which I'm helping teach at a con this year) might get some recognition. Double points for using the just-released Goringo version of Chocolate.

[SuperEuroJimmy]

I myself have been organizing a few parapara event, and am in the middle of organizing two in the near future. All were/are held at an animeconvention (convieniently called 'AnimeCon' too ;) ). I just organized them, not danced. I suck at parapara. XD;

At the first event, held last year, we had one and a half hour. Two parapara groups performed a little show of about 5 minutes, and then both of them tried to learn a group of about 75 people (waay more than we expected) Night Of Fire and Jam Jam Jam.

Night of Fire took the first group almost 45 minutes, leaving us with just half an hour. So without telling how much time we had left, we told the second group to speed it up a bit, because it was going to take too long. They then finished teaching Jam Jam Jam in about 10 minutes. We filmed the entire group doing the both routines, and the parapara groups did a special unexpected perfomance; Hypercondriac (techpara).

The reactions of the crowd were super! So we decided to do this again at a convention half a year later (last October). Again with the same time limit, same set-up. This time the groups chose for Bandido (by DJ Zorro, techpara) and Motto Motto Inamouto. They were done within one hour, including a performance of about 10 minutes as introduction. The rest of the time (half an hour), we did a recap-teaching of Night Of Fire, and finished before our time limit so we could clean up in our own tempo.

At the next AnimeCon we're going to do... something. We haven't decided yet. At another convention, a smaller one, we've decided to do a show, and we have about one hour to fill (including setting up, breaking down, so it'll be about 45 minutes). How that's going to work out... I have no clue XD;

So you need quite a bit time to teach a routine, especially if it's the first time people meet with this strange waving-your-arms-dancing. Keep that in mind. ;)

Also, watching parapara is really boring for those who aren't familiar with it. Unless you do really cool, fast routines (like Hypercondriac, that's an instant-hit here in the Netherlands), people won't be paying that much attention too long. Keep that in mind, or just keep your exhibition short.

I hope I helped you a bit about what you could do. If you've got other questions, ask away!~

Oh yea, before I forget: teach the routines in reverse. Meaning: you do the routine in reverse, the crowd copies you. This is a lot easier for the crowd, but requires you to learn the routine in reverse, which can be a bitch sometimes.
Also, get yourself a (wireless) headset as microphone. ;)

[Nine]

I held a parapara panel at a convention here in Vancouver a few years ago. I talked about ParaPara, Eurobeat, showed the PPP5 special preformance (I actually planned to cut it short but everyone wanted to watch the whole thing) then taught everyone Try Me. The thing at this con is that it was held in a huge university here, so all the panel rooms were lecture halls - we had access to computers and a huge projection screen and sound system; so I used that to my advantage while teaching the routine. I spliced a video for Try Me to different parts, intro, a-melo, b-melo, chorus... I also somehow figured out how to dance it in reverse so I could go through each section in slow-mo.

A lot of the people seemed to enjoy the names for some of the moves, so you could try to point that out while talking about the dance. Like "Baby," "Me," etc. haha

Though, a hillarious part was when they were all learning Try Me (It took about 30 mins or so) someone yelled out during the lesson "TRY ME IS TOO HARD!!!" XDDDDD

Plus, its good to know that if you're holding a ParaPara panel, you will get attendees that want to go to a ParaPara panel, so they will enjoy what you have to offer in most cases.

The year afterwards, I was slated to do a Eurobeat panel for an hour and after a ParaPara panel for another hour - but the convention cut the Eurobeat panel completely because they said it had nothing to do with Japanese culture, and only allotted me 30 minutes for ParaPara because they deemed it a dead fad. I didn't attend at all after that, haha. Though, they had a new person doing the ParaPara panel at the most recent con, but he knew nothing about Eurobeat and ParaPara - all of his facts were completely wrong. He said that Avex hires singers from Europe to come to Japan to record these "high speed techno covers." XD Someone asked from which European countries do the singers come from, and he mentioned Nuage was from France, Lolita was from Greece (how do you get that? XD) and that Dave was from England. All I could do was laugh.

[FAII]

Of course I'll be teaching them in Reverse.

30-40-60 minutes for one single routine? I'm thinking of 10-15 minutes per routine, tops. I'm gonna pic fairly simple routines that should be easy to learn decently.

My teaching sessions won't be about teaching them how to do the routines perfectly. It's gonna be about letting them get a feel for Para Para and do the routines decently. Anyone who likes can talk to me afterwards about learning more.

[SuperEuroJimmy]

If the people you're working with are really stiff and never actually danced (or even swayed to the music) before, you'll definitely need your 60 minutes. :P

And you need to repeat a lot. Sloooow. Then a little bit faster... another little bit faster... etc... etc.... until you're at normal speed.

Also, we too did cut the music into pieces (intro, a-melo, b-melo, sabi). We then burned it on a cd, and played the music on a cd player. A big lesson we learned is; write down what track is which song/part. XD;

But you shouldn't learn them too much at the same time. It's confuuusing.

[Mikaeru]

Yeah. I did that too. The cd thing. A very good thing to do. But yeah, do write down the track listing, and have someone competant at the controls.

Three years ago I taught People Come On, possibly also Mr Know It All, but I forget. I think PPP6 was the big thing with our group then Almost kicked someone in the face during a performance with Lucky Tango. On purpose.

Last year was Hi Hi Mazinga and Mazinger Go (the con had a big Mazinger thing that year), and it went well enough.

[drnrg]

Never really got into the Para Para movement, but once Someone sent me a video of some nice Japanese girls doing Para Para in Bikinis(drools) Pity it got lost when my p.c crashed a few years ago. I believed the song was Nite Of Fire


Boom Boom Fire is so outdated. Why not redo a Para para routin for Energy Man-Bad Bad Bad?

You guys knew I would say that didn't you?

[Mikaeru]

Never really got into the Para Para movement, but once Someone sent me a video of some nice Japanese girls doing Para Para in Bikinis(drools) Pity it got lost when my p.c crashed a few years ago. I believed the song was Nite Of Fire

The music was generic techno, but it was the routine for Jam Jam Jam.

[zoupzuop2]

Bazooka Pistolero has a fairly easy routine. I suck at Parapara, and I could do it right now, almost completely. (That and the song is awesome.)

[SuperEuroJimmy]

Also, if there are Initial D fans, you MUST do Night of Fire. I know it sucks, but you just can't get around it. :(

[FAII]

If the people you're working with are really stiff and never actually danced (or even swayed to the music) before, you'll definitely need your 60 minutes.

And you need to repeat a lot. Sloooow. Then a little bit faster... another little bit faster... etc... etc.... until you're at normal speed.

Also, we too did cut the music into pieces (intro, a-melo, b-melo, sabi). We then burned it on a cd, and played the music on a cd player. A big lesson we learned is; write down what track is which song/part. XD;

But you shouldn't learn them too much at the same time. It's confuuusing.

Yeah, I'm going to cut the songs into several parts, repeating each part several times. At first slowly without music, then, to a slowed down version of the song. Then to the normal version of the song (repeating this for each segment of the song).

[d-tan]

Boom Boom Fire is so outdated. Why not redo a Para para routin for Energy Man-Bad Bad Bad?

You guys knew I would say that didn't you?

Actually, the Bad Bad Bad official ParaPara dance is going to premiere this Sunday at SEF DELUXE in Tokyo.

If you want 10-15 minutes to teach a routine, save that for an advanced panel with people who know what the hell they're doing. That's how much time they give in ParaPara club events in Japan, but in any case they don't even really learn the dance and just film it with their camera or phone. I would say 30-60 minutes is more realistic, as I've done various con panels as well.

Anime convention panels I think should lay off the 3rd boom (98~01) dances and start using newer ones. Some of my suggestions for easy/medium dances would be...
- No Control/Manuel (Gazen ParaPara Juku)
- Ready To Love/Nicole Lee (Love Para3)
- Help Me/David Dima (Love Para3)
- Atsuku Atsuku Atsuku Koi/Ichidai (Gazen ParaPara presents Campus Summit 2006)
- Obsession/Sushi Queen (ParaPara Highschool)
- Last Goodbye/smile (su-mi-re) (ParaPara Highschool)
- Not For Sale/Go 2 (Gazen ParaPara D-1 Grand Prix)
- Chocolate/Soul Control
- Ai no Tokyo Call/Tokyo Call Project feat. Kwenji Hayashida
- Monkey Dance/Y&Co.

You could also do some stuff anime fans or J-Pop people will know:
- Happy Material/Rayto (Love ParaPara 2)
- Easy/Lolita (Gazen ParaPara Juku) - this song is a cover of True Love/Hiroko Anzai which is a cover of another song.
- any Hinoi Team stuff... yeah it get's repetitive but that's what people know! :3
- Venus/Tackey & Tsubasa

... there's a ton of other songs, but these are some that I think could work!