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Cha Cha Cha in New Zealand
By: Ramnish Gupta
Origin:
Cha Cha evolved from the Mambo and Rumba in the early 50s in Cuba. Initially, this new rythm was called "Mambo-Rumba" and later on, renamed "Cha-cha-cha" is this was the sound shoes made when dancing to the rythm.
Music:
Like most other Latin rythms, Cha-cha-cha is also played in 4/4. The music is slightly different to other 4/4 music, as it contains two slower beats followed by three quicker beats (taking up 2 beats). The quick beats is where the dancers do the cha-cha-cha!
Dance:
Cha-cha-cha is quite similar to Salsa. In fact, most of the steps can be directly imported in to Cha cha by simply replacing the pause for beats 4 and 8, by two (smaller) steps. The count is called as "one-two-cha-cha-cha .... five-six-cha-cha-cha". In Cuba, the count is called as "two-three-cha-cha-cha ....". The two cha-cha steps are more of a shuffle as opposed to complete steps.
Latinos NZ Popularity Scale: 2/10
Cha Cha is not very popular in Latin Clubs in New Zealand. In fact, on most nights the only Cha Cha number you would hear is Jennifer Lopez' "Let's get loud"! Hopefully, as more dancers learn Cha Cha it will get more and more popular in Latin clubs in New Zealand.
Article taken from Latinos.co.nz (http://www.latinos.co.nz) |