About the Cha Cha TC Dance Cub Kansas City

Of all the Latin dances, the Cha Cha is the newest. A spin off of the Mambo, Cha Cha made its appearance in the early 1950's in American dance clubs. Because it was slower, and therefore an easier dance to do, Cha Cha rapidly surpassed the quicker Mambo in popularity, giving a wider range of dance enthusiasts the opportunity to move their feet, and their hips, to lively Latin American rhythms.

In the 1950's big band sounds began reflecting Latin American influences and the resulting music was a lively and exotically rhythmic mix. Tito Puente and other Latin American bands and singers helped popularize this Latin craze in New York night clubs, where expert dancers proceeded to make the fast paced Mambo king.

But Enrique Jorrin, a Cuban musician, who is credited with inventing the Cha Cha, wanted to create music that a wider range of people could dance to. He developed music with a slower, medium rhythm Mambo beat. When slowed down his musical version revealed a 3 count beat that people then began to put steps to. The resulting dance, was first called "the triple Mambo", because of the added three quick steps, and later called the Cha Cha Cha. The name was then shortened to Cha Cha and the dance consists of 2 slower steps followed by 3 quick steps.

There are several possibilities as to where the name Cha Cha (or Cha Cha Cha) came from. One version has a singer with one of the 1950's big Latin bands yelling "Cha Cha Cha" as the dancers feet did the three quick steps, and soon everyone was using the phrase to describe the dance. Another theory is that the dance takes its name from the shuffling sound the dancer's feet make when doing the 3 quick steps.

However the name evolved, the dance is here to stay. The Cha Cha remains one of the most popular, lively and fun of all ballroom dances, and can be done not only to Latin American beats, but to a wide variety of contemporary music as well.

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