Chachachá

Chachachá is a Cuban dance music genre created in the early 1950s by violinist *Enrique Jorrín* within the danzón orchestra, or charanga. Played by French flute, violins, piano, bass, timbales and güiro, it is defined by a syncopated four-beat pattern in which dancers' shuffling steps on the fourth beat suggested the onomatopoeic name. Bands led by *Orquesta Aragón*, *Orquesta América* and *Fajardo y sus Estrellas* codified the style, and big-band versions by *Tito Puente* and *Pérez Prado* carried it to international ballrooms, where it became a standard Latin dance repertoire alongside mambo.