The origin of Cha, is Son Guajira, danced on "1" and first used as a Triple Mambo, in a social context , and Cha, is not even considered a latin dance by many DJs and latinos.. and its CHA Cha.... ( 4 and...the Conga slap ).
I've never seen any variety of son danced on1 so that is interesting.
I have no idea whether latinos and DJs consider cha cha cha to be a "latin dance" or music, but they are undeniably from Cuba, which is a latin country...which makes that kind of a funny thing for them if they say it's not latin, but whatever.
My understanding is that the origin is danzón. If you listen to a danzón the montuno section "sounds like" a cha cha cha. In the Diccionario de la Música Cubana Enrique Jorrín "creater" of the cha cha cha said himself "...I liked it so well that I decided to separate the last part, that is to say, the third trio or
montuno, from the
danzón. Then I came up with pieces like 'La Engañadora' (1951), which had an introduction, a part A (repeated), a part B, a return to part A and finally, a coda in the form of a
rumba. From nearly the beginning of my career as a composer of dance songs, I watched how the dancers danced the
danzón-mambo. I noted that most of them had difficulty with syncopated rhythms, owing to the fact that their steps fell on the upbeat (
contratiempo), or in other words, the second and fourth eighth notes of the (2/4) measure. The dancers dancing on the upbeat and the syncopated melodies made it very difficult to coordinate the steps with the music. I began to compose melodies to which one could dance without instrumental accompaniment, trying to use as little syncopation as possible. I moved the accent from the fourth eighth note- where it was normally found in the
mambo- to the first beat of the
cha-cha-chá. And so the
cha-cha-chá was born- from melodies that were practically danceable by themselves and a balance between melodies on the downbeat and the upbeat."
The 4 and 1,( cha, cha , cha thing ), came out of teaching, and is reputed to be a verbilisation of the noise the feet made by singers in bands, when moving back and forth..
Yes I have also heard that the name came from the sound of the women's heels as they clicked on the floor during the shuffle part of the step. The fact that you start dancing with the 4 & 1,(or chachacha) on the 4 makes it contratiempo to me.
