The nature of the dance is important
I can tell you how it started, how the music is, but of course, I suppose you know that... Will it let you wi blackpool? No. Will you stop you winning blackpool when you could? Possibly. So if you don't know the story about cha cha cha and its music, shame on you.
How do you do your cha cha cha better? Well, that comes to the history, and knowing the subject.
How the body works
The best you can do today is to understand the difference between normal and syncopated timing, the difference between walks and steps, the difference between delay walks and normal walks, the difference between muscles and bones. That would be a good start.
It is important because dancing is not only steps. Like no good acting is on the words. You need the words and the timing of words. If we think about basic cha cha cha (timing, steps, body action), you can understand the basic back walk, a twist, a delay walk. Delay walk is the syncopation of normal timing.
A lot of dancers have no 'bones'. In a dance, most powerful moment is in silent. In cha cha cha, because it is such a slick dance, those (beautiful moments that move you) are silent. Moments of silence make you release muscle from gravity into bone. Thos moments make dancers be beautifully sensitively poetic A those moments are the parts which nobody bothers to do. Those moment are what make people professional. Those moments make a difference between the rest and the best. It's not the shake, it's the after riffle that the brain expects. That's the difference between attack (stiff, sharp & sudden) and grown (after riffles, reaction shown in shoulder lines etc).
Walks & step
A step (demonstrating), step to the side, part weight. What we are about is not that complicated. When you can do cha cha cha (the 4&1 chasse), you can do a lot. When you syncopated, it's only half a beat of swivel- no from the half half half half. If you need to perform at a higher level, then the simplest thing becomes effective.
The complicated choreography that people can do, breaking it down then you see all basic principles. (Asked Slavik and to demonstrate a part of their routine, and broke it down to the basics. Then he asked S&E to dance a part of the routine as a little performance)
Lead
Perfect lead is not really the arm. It is the melting of ice. If you lead her lower(arm level), and a bit later, it'll be a lot better. When you lead a girl, you go like (making a stiff face), the lady is tense. It is about mental relaxation. Like in Rumba ( with Nicole), lead her just about 1.5cm lower, and release hand to a lower level before start, the she has a chance to wait for you. (Move) Now we are connected. I have so much to drive into her, then she's not pushing at me. I have something to absorb. This becomes a holistic experience.
The only way you can dance is you dance, the only way you can dance with a partner is she let you, and the only way she would let you is you a way to pass the defense to get the lady to muscles to bones.
Most you (the men) do in dances is to stop the lady, not to start the lady. 99% of the man's lead in latin dances are not starting, they are stopping indeed. (Asked Karina to demo) When a body is in motion like cha cha cha, I only need to stop her. It's not pull (open hip twist), pull (fan), pull (alemanas). That's hard work unless I do (kept along with K) change (took her hand to direct he into another direction), change, change. That's efficient. That body in motion is efficient. Then you can work in the rigjt way.
Summing up
In Cha Cha Cha, in any dances, in cuban motion dances especially, all latin dances except Paso, learn the difference between when you are on muscles, when is muscular, when does the spine continue, when do you go into bones from muscles. Whether you make a step, when you are on a walk, at the end of the walk, how much time is there for release to gravity. The difference between the muscles, bones, normal timing, syn timing, normal walks, delay walks, muscular flicks, upper body, thigh, foot, partner, melting of ice, creation of move even at speed, emotional movie moments.
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