The Cha-cha-cha reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Cha-cha-cha

The Cha-cha-cha (in Spanish chachachá) is a is a Latin American dance and style of music derived from the rumba and mambo in 4/4 meter.

There are two flavors of Cha-cha-cha dance, differing by the place of the chachacha chasse with respect to the musical bar.

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

History

The English dance teacher Pierre Lavelle visited Cuba in 1952 and found a form or rumba being performed with extra steps: the slow step of the basic pattern is replaced with the triple step (cha-cha-cha chasse). He taught these steps as a separate dance which came to be known as Cha-cha-cha, or the Cha-Cha.

See also

• Dance basic topics