5 reasons to learn cha cha before dancing salsa

Are you one of those who believe that dancing salsa is difficult? Don’t feel bad if so. Many people agree with you. It is often because of the speed of the steps and the fluidity of the movements that it might seem to be hard. It is undeniable that salsa has something that catches our attention. If you are one of those who have always wanted to learn to dance salsa, but you are afraid to try it out, today I want to tell you that there is a similar rhythm but a bit slower, I’m talking about cha cha dance. This genre is ideal for helping you get started with Latin rhythms, making you enter salsa dancing more confidently.

1. Salsa is danced at 160 bpm while cha cha at 120 bpm.

But what does this mean? BPM is an expression that refers to “Beat per minute”, which results in the song’s speed or tempo, which means that the more BMP has a melody, the faster the music will go and, therefore, the more dance steps per minute will be made. If you are a beginner, you will surely want to dance at a slower pace, as you manage to externalize the rhythm and steps, until it looks fluid and spontaneous. Nobody wants to look like a robot dancing or be at a party with their partner, and, step on them or worse, lose the rhythm, stumble and fall.

2. You change speed

The basic step of the cha cha goes like 1, 2, 1, 2, 3. What does it mean? Simple: slow, slow, fast, fast, fast, or 1, 2, cha cha cha. And to follow the music, you just need to memorize the rhythm count in your head and do it until it flows automatically, and you don’t need to continue counting. Your brain will interpret the information and know that after two slow steps, three fast ones come. Those speed changes will make the dance feel more fun, without changing the direction or steps as fast as in salsa. Surely this way, you will have more time to think about what step to continue, leaving aside monotony and without boring your dance partner. Learn the basic step of cha cha with this StepFlix cha cha class and don’t miss the opportunity to surprise your dance partner.

3. You can take it to another level

Society is attracted to different things, that’s why cha cha can be your weapon of conquest, and why do I tell you? Like animals, human beings conquer our movements; while the peacock shows its feathers, parading at a rhythm of its own and the gorillas hit its chest as if they were making a hip hop step, we stand out thanks to the dance. The cha cha is a rhythm that uses many spectacular figures and twists, so don’t miss the opportunity to dazzle everyone with your dance steps. And if you learn it properly, you could even compete, because it is a rhythm included within ballroom dances, therefore in ballroom competitions. Don’t you find it interesting to see it as another form of income?

4. The cha cha is cheerful, elegant, and has a lot of flavor.

Cha cha, originated in the 1950s, comes from a traditional Cuban rhythm known as danzón. The violinist Enrique Jorrin realized that dancing fast rhythms like mambo represented an outstanding level of difficulty, then seeking to create melodies that were easy to dance for everyone. He experimented with slower tempos that’s how cha cha came up. Still, Pierre Margolier, who after World War II took the genre to England, became a ballroom dance style and later acquired popularity in the United States. That’s why cha cha cha fuses the flavor of its Cuban roots with the elegance of a ballroom of European culture.

5. The cha cha is your impulse to dance salsa like a professional

The cha cha dance being a subgenre of Latin rhythms contains steps of mambo and rumba. The difference is that it is a dance with few displacements, so you don’t have to worry about colliding with someone while you dance. The advantage of cha cha is that being from the same family of salsa makes it very easy to learn it because the changes are in terms of tempos and not complexity in the steps. In both rhythms, the hips move in the same way, so you don’t have to make any effort to achieve it, it’s about getting carried away, so if you already master the hip movement with the cha cha, you will also be able to master it with the salsa.

Also read: On one, on two, on for Salsa!