We learn to dance the Cha Cha Cha with All Around This World's partners Rafael Mauricio Martínez Santisteban, Gisela Sanches and the Sandunga Dance School in Santiago de Cuba (http://www.sandungadanceschool.com), along with Sandunga school dancers Yaneisis, Alexandra, Yuliano, and Yandro and musicians José and Chucho.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s formal Cuban dance music, danzón, drew its main inspiration from Europe, though the ensembles, called charangas, included African drums and percussion instruments. In the 1950s charangas created a new dance called "Cha Cha Cha," taking some of the syncopation out of the African-inspired mambo. In class we follow the Sandunga Dance School's lead as we Cha, Cha...and sometimes even CHA.