4 Basic Elements of Cha-Cha | Cha-Cha Dance

Aaron: Hi guys, I'm Aaron.

Christina: And I'm Christina.

Aaron: Coming at you today from Dance Times Square here in New York City. Today, we're talking about the four elements of the cha-cha basic. Our first element is what we call walking steps. Forward and backward. Forward, forward, forward, just as simple as that, and replacing back where we came from. And walk, walk, walk and back, back, back. Just as easy as walking down the street.

Now with our cha-cha we're going to be talking about a little bit of a different kind of quality of action, this being a dance that's come over from Cuba in the late 1940's. We're going to add a little bit of a Cuban action to this and place more emphasis, on putting our weight on the balls of our feet. So we're going to dance this forward a little bit more. One, two, three and back again, one, two, three.

Now our second element of the cha-cha basic is going to be a side step. We're going to start in this dance with our left foot and we're going to start side, together, side, together, side. And just the same back in the direction we were coming from, to our right. Side, together, side, together, side. Again, with a little bit of that Cuban action, as well. Side, together, side, together. Really digging down and back where we came from, to our right. Again, side, together, side, together, side.

Christina: And the last element we're going to talk about is the rock step. You take your left foot and you're just going to place it behind you. You're going to step back and put your weight back on your right foot. So weight on the left foot, weight on the right foot, and again, we're going to add that Cuban hip motion in. You're going to step back and replace forward, back, replace, back, replace.

The trick to this move is, I'll show you from the side. You want to keep the movement underneath your body, so you don't want to think of stepping back and forward. You want to keep it very small. It's just going to be right underneath your body, back and forward, back and forward. Great.

Aaron: Okay, guys. So just to recap, the four elements of the cha-cha basic were; walking steps, forward, backward, sidesteps and the fourth element, the rock step. Now we're going to take those, and put those together, and make up our cha-cha basic. Just like so, side, rock, step, side, together, side, rock, step, side together side, rock, step. Now forward and backward with the walking steps,cha-cha-cha, rock, step, cha-cha-cha, rock, step and side, together, side.

Five, six, seven, eight, one, two, three, cha-cha, one, two, three, cha-cha, one, two. Cha-cha, one, two, three, forward, two, three, cha-cha, one, two, three, cha-cha, one, two, three, cha-cha, one, two, three, side together, side.

[XericIsNotMyName]

walking step 0:19

cha cha 0:57

side step 1:15

rock step 1:52

2:58 dance

[dq]

tangina, sasayaw na naman para sa grades :/

[paulajurczak]

I've been dancing since I was 3, I've done ballroom dancing or some type of Latin dancing for probably 5 years, but the basics really really do help no matter how complicated the steps are, explained in a beautiful way thank you

[nicxxao]

*students: "don't need it"
*schools: "how 'bout i do anyway"

[rosalyre]

This is great, thanks for posting it.

Just a note, I know this sounds stupid, but I always wish people would demonstrate these things with their back to the camera/audience so we don't have to reverse left and right in our minds.

[apercarlo]

not my type of dance.. but i need to learn it for our PE clas.. -.-

[cynansalvacion]

walking step 0:19

cha cha 0:57

side step 1:15

rock step 1:52

[DeCastroboiYT]

Whenever our assignment is dancing, you can hear me crying

[allysttms]

i love dancing cha cha!! we did it for school and it was so fun. i couldnt get enough of it

[ZennOfficial]

Sino dito mga pinoy? Sayaw sayaw pa di ko naman gagamitin to, janitor lang naman ako pag laki ko.

[mlb]

Damm you P.E for making me dance this..

[orchidaetruong]

Love your teaching! Very precise and easy to follow.
Thank you!

[ElectricLogan]

If i had a penny for every person to do this for their assignment, I'D BE LOADED!

[peteyeet]

Me and my pal are struggling in dance class so this is what helped us thanks guys

[guinereyes]

Who's here because of PE class dance performance? 😬

[xu]

Who else is here because of their asynchronous activity in mapeh? 😭😭

[IrynaTraduk]

It’s one of the best explanation I have ever seen on YouTube! Thank you a lot! ♥

[ZuleikaMitchell]

Beautiful and clear explanation!

BTW the name of this dance is Cha Cha Chá, with emphasis on the last á.

[shayne_hye]

Bruh for the sake of my grades, i have to do this -.-

[Jessieandart]

i am watching this because I am doing this in p.e