Cha Cha

The dance teacher Pierre Zurcher Margolie from London visited Cuba in 1952 to find out how and what Cubans were dancing at the time. He noted that this new dance had a split 4th beat, and to dance it one started on the second beat, not the first. He brought this dance idea to England and eventually created what is known now as ballroom cha-cha-cha.

There are three flavors of cha-cha-cha dance, differing by the place of the cha-cha-cha chasse with respect to the musical bar. The original Cuban Cha-cha-cha and the Ballroom Cha-cha-cha count "two-three-chachacha".

Country/western cha-cha-cha and Latin street cha-cha-cha in some places other than Cuba count "one-two-chachacha" or "chachacha-three-four".

Cha-cha is either danced to authentic Latin music, or Latin Pop or Latin Rock. The music for the ballroom cha-cha-cha is energetic and with a steady beat. The Latin cha-cha-cha is slower, more sensual and may involve complicated rhythms. Cowboy cha-cha-cha is danced basically to any "four to the floor" music; in addition there are a number of Country/Western novelty dances with the names that include "cha-cha-cha".

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Originator: 

Pierre Zurcher Margolie 

Region of origin: 

Cuba