Cha Cha Cha

 2 Chachacha Stock Vectors and Vector Art | Shutterstock

I
 
Unit: Popular Dance
Theme: Chachacha

Introduction
 The chachacha, is a dance of Cuban origin. It is danced to chachacha music introduced by the Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin in the early 1950s.(1&2) This rhythm was developed from the danzón-mambo. The name of the dance is an onomatopeia derived from the shuffling sound of the dancers' feet when they dance two consecutive quick steps that characterize the dance.(3)
 
 
II
 
Learning Objectives 

  • Understand chachacha within the context of showbis and popular music/dance
  • Explain the differences between Cuban cha cha cha and ballroom chacha
  • Gain an awareness of how chachacha became Americanized and internationalized
  • Experience the steps of traditional chachacha

 III
 
Main Lesson 
 
 1
 
Cuban chachacha 
 
Silvano Borges and Sardinas (2017), explain the main step in chachacha: chachacha, one two, chachacha. Thus, when dancing chachacha, also the starting and intermediate steps are important. Given the dance's structure, Silvano Borges and Sardinas conclude that chachacha "emerges from danzon or son or from both of them." The authors explain that the nature of the dance, when danced in a couple format, need to follow a ring shape to be able to dance in a ballroom, otherwise, there is not enough room. They emphasize the use of the short step, which allows the man to start with the left foot and the woman with the right.(4)
 
Abreu (2015) explains how chachacha was supplied by Afro-Cuban performers at nightclubs and hotels in Havana. Therefore, chachacha was an international Latin dance phenomena and as cultural expression of Afro-Cubanness. Abreu echoes the believe that Latin generally meant Cuban, concluding that Cubanness was neither static nor immune to change.
 
Question 1
 
What does the statement "Cubanness was neither static nor immune to change" meant?
 
 

2

Jorrin / Nieves and Alfredo
 
 
 
Questions 2
 
What is Jorrin's main message in this clip?
 

 3

Chachacha in Cinema

 
 
 
 
 
Question 3
 
What does the adoption of chachacha by international cinema suggest?
 
 4
 
Theater
 
 
 
Question 4
 
How is chachacha used in these two theatrical instances?


5

American Cha Cha: “Louie, Louie” and the integration of dance and the people.

Ned Sublette in his essay “The Kingsmen and the Cha Cha Cha” brings attention to how Cha Cha Cha, the Cuban popular rhythm, enters American collective conscience.  Coined by French sociologist Émile Durkheim, collective conscience describes a set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes that in this case, inadvertently, through Cha Cha Cha music and dance functioned as a unifying force within certain sectors of American society.  Four years after the Cuban Revolution, in 1963, the year I was born, when it seemed as if Cuba had disappeared from the American gaze, The Kingsmen, a 1960s beat/garage rock band from Portland, Oregon, recorded “Louie, Louie” a song that was influenced by Cha Cha Cha. Not surprisingly, given its origin, "Louie, Louie" became the Kingsmen's one big hit as it defined the garage-band style and became one of the all-time classics. The original lineup included Jack Ely (lead singer and guitar), Lynn Easton (drums), Mike Mitchell (lead guitar), Bob Nordby (bass), and Don Galucci (piano).

Video [Commodification)

The Kingsmen - Louie, Louie (Shindig 1965)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvxH64sB4sE

This was no accident; Cubans had been part of the American conscious long before the influx of the first wave of Cuban exiles in the early 60s through I love Lucy’s Ricky Ricardo, a character played by Cuban band leader Desi Arnaz. As stated by Sublette, “everyone could da-dum Lucy’s theme song composed by Arnaz’s Santiago de Cuba homeboy Marco Rizo” ( ?).  

Video (I love Lucy)

[Humorous Caricaturization]

I Love Lucy - Cuban Pete & Sally Sweet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-hk_7Ln-MM

As it happened in Mexico during the rumba and mambo dancers’ era of Mexican Golden Cinema, American’s idea of dancing, according to  Sublette, was largely Cuban.

Video (Rumberas) [Objectification and Exoticizing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-8dExdlPU8

Amalia Aguilar Rico Cha-Cha-Cha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b-m1sPgLFo

 

Question 5

Explain how terms such as commodification, caricaturization, objectification and exoticizing are present in the portrayal of chachacha outside of Cuba.

6

American Nightclubs

At the time American nightclubs had Latin themes, book Latin dance bands, and American working musicians were expected to know how to play Latin numbers. At this time the Latin bands alternated on the band stand with white dance bands for white audiences and they also split the bill with black bands playing for black audiences. They were a point of contact for the still segregated musical world. Thus, at the Palladium, on 53rd Street and Broadway, Latin Bands played for the most integrated crowd in New York: Puerto Ricans, African Americans, Jews, and Italians.

Video (Palladium Ballroom) (Cultural Integration)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm3lkV45lY8

Question 6

What would you say was the importance of the Palladium for younger dancers during the boom of Latin dances in New York City?

7

Post Missile Crisis

After the Missile Crisis, as the Cuban revolution began to align politically and economically with the interests of the Eastern Soviet Block, the island slowly shifted from being a source of music to being the host of a Marxist government. Ironically, as subsequent waves of Cuban exiles came to the U.S. fleeing property confiscations, summary trials, political imprisonment and executions by firing squad, or simply the woes of an increasingly totalitarian government, the two countries became more and more distant.  Yest chachacha was still danced and played in Cuba.

Cha Cha Cha (Cuba) (Cuban clip of Cha Cha Cha on TV)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1UCs9c6MRQ

However, by the time roc and roll became popular, Cuban music was no longer part of the American consciousness, except for a new genre, salsa, which derived from the Cuban guaracha and slowly began to permeate the fabric of Latin music and dance in America.

Question 7

How did the Cuban Revolution and its posterior transition into a dictatorial regime affect the internationalization of Cuban music?

 

8

Louie Louie

According to Sublette, The Kingsmen, did not know that came from Cha Cha Cha. Yet, its composer, Richard Berry, the twenty one year old, Louisiana-born, African American singer-songwriter from South Central Los Angeles, knew it. “Louie Louie” was not only composed during the height of the Cha Cha Cha boom of 1956, but as cited by Sublette, Berry considered it “a R & B song,” the blues-influenced form of music predominantly performed by African-Americans since the late 1930s. The term 'Rhythm and Blues' was first introduced into the American lexicon in the late 1940s: the name's origin was created by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans. As Berry continues, as shared by Sublette, this R & B song was still Cha Cha, since at the time “everyone was doing Cha Cha Cha” (?).

Video (Richard Berry) (Appropriation by the Kingsmen)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-2CKsaq5r8

Berry played for more than a year with the Rillera Brothers Band, who introduced Berry to El Loco Cha Cha by Cuban composer Rene Touzet, who died in exile. Dave Marsh in his book Louie Louie: The History and Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n Roll Song; explains that the only reason why Berry wrote a song to Touzet’s Latin beat was that he needed material for an upcoming session of his own. Thus, "El Loco Cha cha chá," interpreted by Rick Rillera and The Rhythm Rockers, is at the chore of American Cha Cha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iApNzdSnJw4

This last video was filmed at Brave Combo's Annual Holiday Dance Party held at Fitzgerald's in Chicago on Nov. 29, 2008.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORkyfKOJI5E

 

 Question 8

What would you say about the similarities between El Loco and Louie Louie?

9

Cha Cha 

https://youtu.be/ykefc1w0Jms?si=Cn67WQ3CT2FqFiOH

https://youtu.be/LWR7re3U3e0?si=zMXrs0-WUuhagiy5


Question 9

What aspects of the chachacha still remain in the current ballroom chacha style?


IV

A Note to Remember

"El Loco Cha cha chá," interpreted by Rick Rillera and The Rhythm Rockers, is at the chore of American Cha Cha.

 

V

Case Studies

Summary Video
 
 
  How the Mambo became the Cha-Cha-Cha

https://archives.dance/2013/02/how-the-mambo-became-the-cha-cha-cha-and-the-mambo-dance-craze-of-the-1950s-by-patsy-holden/



VI

Activity

Students learn the basic chachacha step


VII

Journaling


VIII

Glossary


IX

 Sources

1. Orovio, Helio (1944). Cuban Music from A to Z. p 50

2. Giro, Radamés (2007). Diccionario enciclopédico de la músic in daddy South Korea. La Habana. p. 281

3. Jorrín, Enrique (1971). Origen ddwadel chachachá. Signos 3 Vil esparza, p. 49. 

4. Silvano Borges, A. and Sardinas, A.J. (2017). History of Dancing Ring and Casino Salsa. https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_dancing_ring_and_Casino_Salsa/GfifDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cha+cha+history&pg=PT33&printsec=frontcover 

5. Abreu, C.D. (2015). Rhythms of Race: Cuban Musicians and the Making of Latino New York City and Miami, 1040 - 1960. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Rhythms_of_Race/OZqIBwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=cha%20cha%20cha

5. Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1981. Música cubana del Areyto a la Nueva Trova. 2nd rev ed, Cubanacan, San Juan P.R.

6. Marsh, Dave. Louie Louie: The History and Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n Roll Song. University of Michigan Press, 2010

7. Sublette, Ned. The Kingsmen and Cha-Cha-Cha. Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music. Editor Eric Weisbard. Duke University Press, 2007

8.  Holden, Patsy (2013). How the mambo became the cha-cha-cha. https://archives.dance/2013/02/how-the-mambo-became-the-cha-cha-cha-and-the-mambo-dance-craze-of-the-1950s-by-patsy-holden/


X

Students' Work

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