Cha Cha Cha

Cha Cha Cha

The cha cha cha is a popular Afro-Cuban dance that is often danced at ballroom dance events as well as Latin clubs. Cha-cha music is written in 4/4 time and around 30 measures per minute (120 beats per minute) with a medium-to-fast, syncopated feel.

Cha-cha is generally done as a partnership dance, which means the “leader” (traditionally – though not necessarily – meaning the man) will control the flow of the dance, guiding the follower and deciding what patterns to do, etc, while the “follower” (traditionally the woman) will try to match the leader’s movements and timing.

Basic Steps and Figures

1. This is the Basic pattern, also known as a Side Basic or Chasse Basic or Close Basic. It is described here from the leader’s perspective (the follower’s part is nearly identical; the most obvious difference is that she will take a backward rock when the leader takes a forward rock and vice versa). Note that other cha-cha patterns will replace some or all elements of the Basic with fancier elements. The Basic cha-cha pattern is counted 2-3-cha-cha-cha, or 2-3-4&1 if you know how to Count Music.

2. Rock step forward with your left foot. A “rock step” means take one step (in this case a step forward), completely putting your weight on the foot (in this case, your left foot), but WITHOUT picking up or moving the trailing foot, then shifting your weight back completely onto that other foot (in this case the right foot). More detailed breakdown:

   • Small forward step with the left foot on the TWO beat of the music.
   • Rock (i.e. shift weight) back onto the right foot on the THREE beat.

3. Chasse to the left, aka cha-cha-cha to the left. A “chasse” means you take a step, then bring your feet together and put your weight on the foot you just moved, then take a third step with the original foot. So it’s like: step, together, step – as if one foot were chasing the other and catching up on every other step. Note that “together” means that you can actually feel your feet physically touching. In this case, our chasse is to the left, so it consists of three fast steps taken to the leader’s left in two beats of music. Breakdown:

   • Take a tiny step to the left with your left foot on the FOUR beat of the music. (This is the first “cha” in “cha-cha-cha”).
   • Bring your right foot together with your left foot and shift your weight onto the right foot; do this on the half-beat between four and one. (This is the second “cha”).
   • Take a step to the left with your left foot on the ONE beat of the music. This is the third and final “cha” in “cha-cha-cha”. It can be a slightly larger step than the previous steps, visually reflecting the emphasis on the 1 beat you hear in the music, though this is not a hard and fast rule.

4. Rock step backward with the right foot. This is like the forward rock step, except going back, and with the opposite foot. Detailed description:

   • Small step backward on the right foot, on the TWO beat of the music. As with the rock step forward, put your weight completely on this foot, but don’t actually pick the other foot up off the floor (the left heel can come up, but don’t actually move the left foot back or lift it into the air).
   • Rock (i.e. shift weight) forward onto the left foot on the THREE beat.

5. Chasse to the right. It’s much like the chasse to the left, only it’s to the right instead.

   • Tiny step to the right with the right foot, on the FOUR beat.
   • Bring your left foot together (that means feet touching each other) to your right foot, and put your weight onto the left foot. This happens on the half-beat between four and one.
   • Step to the right on the ONE beat of the music.
6.  Repeat from “rock step forward with the left”. At this point, your left foot is hopefully free and able to carry out that forward rock step, after which you chasse to the left again, etc.

Here are some video