Cha-cha-chá (Cuban dance)

Cha-cha-chá (Cuban dance)

The "cha-cha-chá" is a Cuban dance that became popular in the 1950s in conjunction with "cha-cha-chá" dance music.

Origins

The inventor of the musical genre "cha-cha-chá" was a violinist and composer named Enrique Jorrín, whose song [http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/MP3Player.aspx?TAID=8379 La Engañadora] (1951) is considered to be the first "cha-cha-chá" ever composed (Orovio 1981:130-1).

From the beginning (that is to say, the later stages of development of the "danzón-mambo"), the composers and interpreters of "cha-cha-chás" had a symbiotic relationship with the dancing public:

"What Jorrín composed, by his own admission, were nothing but creatively modified "danzones". The well-known name came into being with the help of the dancers [of the Silver Star Club in Havana] , when, in inventing the dance that was coupled to the rhythm, it was discovered that their feet were making a peculiar sound as they grazed the floor on three successive beats: "cha-cha-chá", and from this sound was born, by onomatopeia, the name that caused people all around the world to want to move their feet..." (Sanchez-Coll 2006)

The "three successive beats" are the "1-2-3" steps, as counted in Cuba (see below).

Basic Step

The "cha-cha-chá" begins on the fourth beat of a measure of 4/4. Cuban dancers count it "1-2-3, 1-2."

Figures

The following figures are basic to a knowledge of the "cha-cha-chá": "giro separándose y encontrándose la pareja" (turn where partners separate and then reunite), "paseo" (moving forward or backward around the dance floor), "rebote" (open to the side-close) and "paso lateral" (side step) (Fernández 1974:80-6).

Among the more advanced figures are "vuelta con palmadas" ("complete turn and clap hands"), "amague," and "vuelta complicada" ("complicated turn").

References

* Fernández, María Antonia. 1974. Bailes Populares Cubanos. La Habana, Editorial Pueblo y Educación.
* Orovio, Helio. 1981. Diccionario de la Música Cubana. La Habana, Editorial Letras Cubanas. ISBN 959-10-0048-0
*cite news|last=Sanchez-Coll|first=Israel|url=http://www.conexioncubana.net/index.php?st=content&sk=view&id=1753&sitd=305
title=Enrique Jorrín|publisher=Conexión Cubana|date= 2006-02-08 |accessdate=2007-01-31


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