The cha cha cha

It is worth clarifying that the relatively recent adoption (1951) of the expression “cha cha cha” does not mean that the dance was born on the same date as its official name: the basic movements, although not precisely codified, may already have existed before this new genre reached its musical formalization.

For most scholars, the origins of the CHA CHA movements can be placed in Cuba at the beginning of the 1900s, during the period in which son, danzòn, rumba and mambo developed.

Enrique Jorrin adopted the expression cha cha cha in 1951 (after having previously called it “mambo-rumba”). While performing a mambo at a party (indoors?), he noticed that some dancers did not pause on the slow beat, but kept moving their feet in a chassè. Jorrin was favorably struck by this and was, without a doubt, the first musician to build the rhythmic framework of the cha cha cha, formalizing it musically. But he could do no better than to call it “mambo-rumba”.

Mambo, rumba and danzòn were already established dances and musical genres, whereas the cha cha did not exist on its own. But Enrique Jorrin was a great composer: he believed wholeheartedly that he could invent a new rhythm, using familiar and homely ingredients. And he did so magnificently: because the cha cha, starting with him, became one of the most famous musical genres and one of the greatest dances of all time.

In 1959-60, while in America and England it was an established dance with a vast following of enthusiasts, in Italy it remained in the shadows. Suddenly, in 1961, it had an unexpected breakthrough thanks to a soubrette who was famous at the time, Abbe Lane (Xavier Cugat’s partner), who, through the small screen, made Italians fall in love: with her curves and, at the same time, with the cha cha cha. From that moment on it settled into the habits and preferences of our people.