by Jerome Espinosa Baladad

Created on: February 21, 2011

The Latin dance cha cha is known to have originated in 1940s Cuba, then among the leading and favorite resort destinations of travelers most notably coming from the US East Coast. Before music played by professional big bands, couples would be dancing to the cha cha beat (3-step set to 2 beats of slower music). The Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin is credited with having made a new genre of dance music on ‘cha cha cha’ way back in 1948. He devised and recorded a rhythm using the danzon (which used to be actively danced in Cuba and similar to habanera, and both dances having evolved from the English-origin ‘contradanza’) by creating a style of syncopation on the fourth beat.

The cha cha is a fusion of dances particularly distinctive in Cuba. Its rhythm reminds the listener of then common dance styles that were influenced by European and African rhythm and dance styles. It is believed to have come from dance styles brought by the fleeing French colonists to Cuba from the Haitian Revolution of the 1790s.

By the 1950s, the French dance teacher Monsieur Pierre (Pierre Jean Philippe Zurcher-Margolle, also a well-known proponent of ballroom dancing in England for Latin dances) studied the then recent-developments in Cuban dancing when he travelled to Cuba. With his regular dance partner, Doris Lavelle, they observed the variation on the dancing being performed by Cubans. They would note that dancers when they dance the Rumba, they would make moves to some extra beats.  The partners upon coming back to England eventually created their version of the ‘ballroom cha-cha-cha.’ This dance has since then been popularized in Europe particularly in its inclusion in Walter Laird’s definitive book ‘Technique of Latin Dancing’ (first published in 1961). This book also defined the connection of cha cha with rumba and the mambo (salsa). 

The term ‘cha cha’ has been a derivation from a number of terms. It could be from the term used in the West Indies for certain plants that produce seed pods. These seeds are in turn used in making small musical instruments (called ‘cha cha’ or maracas). In original Spanish, the word also stands for ‘nursemaid’ i.e. (mu)chacha. It could be from the word ‘charchar’ which means to ‘chew leaves.’ Or it could be from ‘char’ (tea) or the cheerful and fast Cuban dance before the turn of the 20th century called ‘Guaracha.’ It’s even onomatopoeic, with ‘cha cha cha’ being heard with the use of the percussion instrument ‘Guiro’ as the dancers’ feet shuffle on the dance floor. 

By the late 1950s, cha cha became popular in the US with it being performed on Lucille Ball’s very popular TV show. It’s still being given constant interesting updates, which has been heard most recently from the music of Crazy Frog’s ‘Cha Cha Slide’ (by DJ Casper from Chicago).  

Sources:

1) Wikipedia’s Cha-cha-cha

2) Sonny Watson’s StreetSwing.com

3) Howtodancelikestar.com’s ‘The Cha Cha History’

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