Cha Cha History

    The root history of the name “cha cha” is onomatopoetic in nature. It was noticed that while executing gliding steps, the dancers do a relative dragging of their feet over three successive beats which was originally counted “one-two-three”. This shuffling emits a certain, strange, unique sound which brings attention to the ears. Coupled with the rhythm of güiro (a musical instrument consisting of a dried gourd rubbed by a serrated stick), it constitutes the famous tag “cha cha cha”, so as to correspond to the previous counts “one-two-three”.
    A different etymology presents it alternatively in the context of plants. In the West Indies, seed pods called cha-cha are produced by certain plants. In Spanish, they mean “nursemaid”. The seed pods make a rattle, the same rattling sound made by maracas; such was also called as cha-cha. In addition, other terms could well be the source of such derivative. The name could have also come from chachar, meaning “to chew coca leaves” or from char, meaning “tea”. Whatever the root of the word was, all would have to agree about the dance having Cuban origin.
    The dance had its conception in Cuba early 1950s. Its music was said to be an unmistakable invention of the Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin. He formed the dance as a variant of mambo and rumba, mixing the danzon and montuno music together. On the process, he heard a particular swishing in the sound by which he dubbed as “cha cha”. Years after, he finished recording one of his compositions entitled Enganadora (The Cheat).
    During late 1940s, Cuba was then a resort sought by North Americans. As dance bands, both American and those native to Cuba, stay to perform at casinos, they tried to mix Cuban rumba rhythm with American jazz beat. The combination gave rise to what is now the mambo rhythm. As distinguished to single and double mambo, the triple mambo has five steps to a bar. This is the version used later on and this was in reference to the name triple mambo, also known to be cha cha. The same was also described as “mambo with guiro rhythm” in 1954. A figure of the mambo called chatch is distinguished by two slow steps followed by three quick changes in weight. This series of steps evolved to a dance made up of variations applied on the basic footwork while retaining the three-step change in weight as was verbally outlined as “cha-cha-cha”. The dance’s current official name is cha cha.
    The basis of the dance, however, was introduced by Monsieur Pierre Zurcher-Margolle, a dance mentor, and his partner Doris Lavelle. Part of the study they were conducting was to ascertain what Cubans were dancing at that time and the manner by which they were carrying out the pertained dance. To accomplish this, they visited Cuba in 1952 and made significant observations about the rhythm of the dance. As noted, the dance starts on the second beat and has a split fourth beat. The syncopation led to the development of the rhythm from the danzón. It was also commented that the rumba was sometimes dance with few extra steps. This newfound idea was brought back to England and was materialized into a separate dance, which resulted to the creation of the ballroom cha cha cha.
    The cha cha instantly became popular in Cuba and Latin America. The years surrounding 1950s served to be stepping stones as the dance was welcomed into the United States. There, it became widely popular attaining the same popularity status of the mambo. At this time, the United States was described to be cha cha crazed until the pachanga replaced it in popularity. It was also during this period, particularly 1951, that the first cha cha cha song La Engañadora was composed. The La Engañadora and Silver Star became hits and were loved by more listeners.
    By the 1960s, the style of dancing was further developed by Walter Laird. It remained a popular dance until Latin clubs clamored “Salsa! Spice it up!” Eagerly, they were yearning for a dance that adds more zest and attitude; this was when boogaloo and pachanga came into picture. Before long, cha cha lost in popularity to salsa. Despite this downslide, it continues to be danced to Latin music and tied with other types of music genres. A fun and funky dance, cha cha keeps a strong foothold in the world of dance and music.