Sunday, 05 September 2010
History of Disco NRG
Disco NRG is the first North American ParaPara Circle that closely follows Japanese circle group rules. We are made up of members from across North America with a common goal: to spread the word of ParaPara.

 

2005

Lucky Paradise Flier

In the summer, future Disco NRG members D~tan, ZYX, J's and Cigy went to Tokyo, Japan for 2 weeks. Through this experience, we became known as "Paralization-Globalization-", the name being a tribute to T-RREX member Rh. We performed two Parapara performances through Super Loose events STAR FIRE and B-1 Dynamite. We also taught the ParaPara lesson for "Nothing Can Stop The Music" by Go Go Girls at B-1 Dynamite along with Rh and Harumi. Also during that time, we were featured on Japanese news dancing in the audience of Hinoi Team events.

Later that summer, the American Dream girls were sponsored by avex and participated in the avex rave ParaPara competition, winning 3rd place. They were interviewed for radio and television in Japan, and were later featured in footage of the contest on the Gazen ParaPara Mook DVD.

J's, Dtan, ZYX, Richie and Cigy 2005
On October 27th, Disco NRG had its first Parapara club night called "Lucky Paradise". The event was held at Club Avalon's Spider Room in New York City. As a special present, attendees received a copy of Lucky Paradise volume 1: the first ever Disco NRG produced dvd featuring 10 select Parapara dances of that time. The dvd featured J's, Cigy and BananaJoe.

During Winter of 2005, D~tan, ZYX, J's, Cigy, Steve & BananaJoe became known as the first USA ParaPara Circle "DISCO NRG".

 

At A-kon in Dallas, TX - 2006

2006

This was another big year for Disco NRG. With the departure of Anthony from DNRG and after Lucky Paradise, a second DVD was produced: Disco NRG ~A HYPER NOMA NIGHT VOL.1~ . Which featured brand new Parapara and Techpara dances, along with 2nd boom oldies for solos. In the month of June, Disco NRG members attended the anime convention A-Kon in Dallas, TX. It was one of the first times the ParaPara community gather together in one place at a time. and also brought upon a friendship between the current DNRG members with future members, American Dream and Reed.

D~tan at Gazen ParaPara Karaoke filming

July and August were very big months. D~tan, J's and ZYX came to Japan for a 2 month stay, filled with ParaPara. Some of the highlights of the trip included D~tan being featured as a backup dancer in a Gazen ParaPara Karaoke video production, D~tan being filmed for club footage featured in SEF Gold 009, D~tan & J's teaching the very first ParaPara lesson ("Get The Darkside Into My Brain" by Cy-Ro) at Nagoya's ParaParaMax event, D~tan, J's & ZYX being filmed for news footage at a Toshiba-EMI Misa event, D~tan & ZYX attending avex & egg magazine's Egg Matsuri and mingling with the ParaPara community.

This year became greater when D~tan became one of avex's most wanted, in a bad way. Starting with her, and eventually hitting the entire ParaPara community on YouTube, they started flagging videos due to "copyright infringements". The year ended with D~tan being verbally attacked by avex, and getting kicked out of the SEF final event in velfarre.

Stevie, D~tan, Jim, Alex and Maggie going to Six Flags

2007

The year started with the addition of the 2nd generation: American Dream members Maggie, Mina & Erin and Alex from Canada. In the month of February, D~tan, ZYX, Mina, Alex, Connor, J's and Steve got together to film Disco NRG vol. 2 along with the introduction of the new DNRG series: Maniac Fiesta. Maniac Fiesta became a new project with members of DNRG (mainly J's & ZYX) choreographing songs and having fellow members film them.

During the months after, Reed was added to the group. He was living in Tokyo, Japan for study abroad and made a significant impact. Not only did he become the first foreigner to dance "Fire step", he entered 2 major ParaPara contests. He won 3rd place for the Gazen ParaPara contest in Sendai, and won 1st place for the Magical Rave contest with ZYX doing his contest mix. He was later featured in a Magical Rave DVD dancing the song "I'm Loving You" by Lolly' O.

June came around, and brought another A-Kon. We met with another future member, Billy, held more ParaPara events and performed a ParaPara show (American Dream feat. J's, Cigy & D~tan). The summer months remained unproductive, with the departure of Cigy to go on a study abroad trip to Kobe, Japan for a year.

October came and brought together members Maggie, Alex, D~tan, ZYX, J's, Steve and staff member Franny together to NYC. The purpose was to film and complete a new DVD: Maniac Fiesta vol. 2. Throughout the weekend, we drove to New Jersey's Six Flags in the disco mobile, met Fausto Guio (aka The Prophet and many other aliases in the TechPara music world) with SEPH's Javier and of course filmed our successful DVD. The year ended with Cigy becoming a local at Osaka's Neo event and preparing for a "secret" project to be available to the public.

 

2008

In the month of January, we started to produce the videos from the "secret project" we had planned at the end of 2007: The 2007 Project. Our group collectively got together to try our best to film as many of the 2007 dances that weren't on official videos as possible. Steve also held ParaPara panels at Ohayocon during the month.

Throughout the months, we continued to release videos steadily. August was another significant month. We became involved with Kakkoi-con's Galcir Summit 2008, and helped out and competed in the ParaPara events. With mixes created by ZYX, everyone had a great time there! This month also marked the return of Cigy from Japan, the departure of Mina to Nagoya, Japan and the addition of Billy to DNRG.

From September to October, D~tan & ZYX (TWO★HEARTS) released videos weekly. For the rest of the year, there was not much activity due to busy schedules on everyone's part. D~tan managed to go to Japan for a little over a week and re-visited club events.