Cha-cha-chá (Cuban dance)
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The cha-cha-chá is a Cuban dance that became popular in the 1950s in conjunction with cha-cha-chá dance music.
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[edit] Origins
The inventor of the musical genre cha-cha-chá was a violinist and composer named Enrique Jorrín, whose song 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).
[edit] 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."
[edit] 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").
[edit] 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
- Sanchez-Coll, Israel. "Enrique Jorrín", Conexión Cubana, Feb. 8,2006. Retrieved on 2007-01-31.
