The Cha-cha-cha reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Cha-cha-cha

Helping orphans the way you would do it
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.

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