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Dances · Cha-Cha-Cha
The Cha-Cha-Cha
was created by a Cuban violinist and orchestra director
Enrique Jorrín in 1948, as a result of
his experimentation with the danzón’s
form, melody and rhythm. Of all Latin dances,
it is the most recently incorporated into the
Latin family. The cha cha is an in-between dance,
not too fast and not too slow, which makes it
easy to grasp for everybody, as opposed to the
Mambo, where the
music is faster and the rhythm more complex.
The cha cha has a 4x4 timing (four beats per bar).
The
steps used to dance the cha cha are simple
and easy to follow: on the first beat the first
step is taken, another on the second beat, on
the third beat two steps lasting a half beat each
and on the fourth one more step. The steps taken
on one beat of the music are called ‘slow’
and the steps taken on half beats are ‘quick’.
The cha
cha is a tropical dance of widespread use
in the dance salons. The dancers position their
bodies together and hold their arms in tropical
style, making the characteristic hip movement
of the Caribbean dances.
The open position of the dancers is also typical
of this dance. The cha-cha-cha derives from the
mambo, which is
why all mambo moves can be done by dancing cha-cha-cha.
However, the basic dance , for example, belongs to an unit of
the mambo and has two extra steps. Despite the fact
that figures are similar in both dances, generally
the cha-cha-cha is a slower, smoother and more
elegant dance than the mambo.
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