What is cha-cha-cha? Origins, music and what makes the dance

Cha-cha-cha is a Cuban dance and music style from the early 1950s. You may know it from ballroom dancing, but it comes from the same Cuban family as salsa. You will also come across it at Latin schools and socials.

Where does cha-cha-cha come from?

From Havana, around 1950. The music is credited to Enrique Jorrín, violinist and composer with the charanga orchestra Orquesta América. He developed it from the danzón-mambo. His best-known song, "La engañadora", is regarded as the first cha-cha-cha. Orquesta América recorded it in 1953; sources differ on when Jorrín wrote it. Both 1948 and 1951 are mentioned, and even the liner notes of one and the same Smithsonian Folkways record give both years. Jorrín simplified the rhythms, because many dancers struggled with the heavy syncopation of the mambo.

According to Jorrín, the name comes from the sound of shuffling feet on three quick steps. The Silver Star Club in Havana is often mentioned in this context, where dancers made that step to his music. There are other explanations for the name as well. So the dance and the music belonged together from the start. In the 1950s cha-cha-cha became popular far beyond Cuba, helped by the rise of television and the LP.

What music do you dance cha-cha-cha to?

To cha-cha-cha music, originally played by charanga orchestras: flute, violins, piano, double bass and percussion. Orquesta Aragón and José Fajardo's orchestra are named as important orchestras in the development of the style. Musicologists differ on how close cha-cha-cha is to danzón: one sees it as a derivative of danzón, another stresses a structure of its own.

How do you dance cha-cha-cha?

The recognisable triple step, the cha-cha-cha, falls on "4-and-1" in the ballroom count. In full that count is "2, 3, 4-and-1": a checked step on 2, weight back on 3 and the chassé on 4-and-1. The basic takes two bars, and partners mirror each other. Many social dancers count "one, two, cha-cha-cha", which shifts the step by a whole count. It helps to know which count your school uses.

In the ballroom world the technique was codified in the 1950s and 1960s. In competitions the tempo is around thirty to thirty-two bars per minute. Leading and following are roles, not genders (see Lead, follow or switch).

Where do you dance cha-cha-cha?

Cha-cha-cha is often on the programme at ballroom dance schools. At Latin schools and socials you regularly hear it in between the salsa. Find a school through ballroom dancing on Discover or salsa on Discover, for example salsa in Amsterdam. If you are just starting, read Your first dance class.

Sources

• Smithsonian Folkways, The Cuban Danzón: Its Ancestors and Descendents (FE 4066, 1982), liner notes by John Santos (Jorrín and Orquesta América, "La engañadora", television and the LP, Orquesta Aragón and José Fajardo, the name): https://folkways-media.si.edu/docs/folkways/artwork/FW04066.pdf
• Wikipedia, Cha-cha-chá (music): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cha-cha-ch%C3%A1_(music)
• Wikipedia, La engañadora (recording March 1953): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_enga%C3%B1adora
• Wikipedia, Cha-cha-cha (dance): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cha-cha-cha_(dance)
• Wikipedia, List of DanceSport dances (competition tempo): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DanceSport_dances