I worked witn a teacher briefly who started a Samba routine with Stationery Samba Walks (ie with feet apart front to back when taking up hold) - THAT was odd!

I too was taught to begin left side and back as a lead.
Though it was made clear to me by my instructor not everyone started the same way and I would have to learn to be clear in my lead so tha the lady would know to follow even if she was used to starting in a different way.

Then again my old studio also started the rumba to the left after beginners bronze to emphasize the hip movement.

CliveHarison. To start a Samba with Stationary Samba Walks is a bit odd and very advanced. The timing is entirely different to a Natural or Reverse Basic. On it the RF moves back on the count of and. The feet are together on the solid beat. Usually four bars of music are used.

Actually -- rhythmically speaking-- there is a difference in the truer musical interpretation of latin by commencing back . .

the objective of its " form " is the " call and response " dictated by clave rhythm .
The man should commence with a backward motion, signalling to the lady-- respond .

Bolero, Mambo etc. all commence in this direction. it follows the musical intonation of the 1st bar of the octave.

For reasons best known to him ( Pierre ) it was changed to its current form in the Intern .style .
(Have thoughts on why )

If you read the history of the genre, it makes it abundantly clear, why the format takes its place in the form that it does .
Your " Latin " is based on Yambu, Danzon, and several other indigenous forms of dance .

Santeria( the religion ) also plays a large role .

Just as a point of info, I had a similar question with the rumba - one studio starting one way and another a different way.

Both studios' mantra though is the man always starts on his left because the lady is always right (as in "correct"). (Except for the Argentine Tango where the man leads with his right. Most of the time. )

I sincerely hope he leads with his body !!

Man, you guys are hardcore. Point well taken...

Thankyou-- we aim to please

There's a difference between the beginning and end points of any particular pattern, and how you begin the entire dance.

When beginning a dance, the leader can decide to do just about anything he wants -- or at least, anything he is capable of leading. It's quite easy to lead the lady to start on any particular foot by taking position and shifting weight sideways to one foot or the other. From there it's just a matter of choosing a direction.

Most American schools are in the habit of teaching Cha Cha as starting LF side for man, but the choice to do so has no particular rhyme nor reason. It's simply an accepted convention. I personally prefer to start RF side or forward myself, but sometimes I mix it up. I think teaching pointless conventions such as "Always start on this foot and in this direction" is a bad idea because it robs the student of a perfectly good opportunity to practice leading or following.

But again, this has nothing to do with where any particular pattern begins. Most rudimantary Cha Cha patterns, including the Cha Cha Basic, have two symmetrical halves. Put the two halves together, and you have a repeatable, looping pattern. As with any looping pattern, you can think of almost any point as the starting point, because it always loops back again. So whether you think of the Cha Cha basic as "Forward rock, cha cha cha, back rock, cha cha cha" or "Back rock, cha cha cha, forward rock, cha cha cha", it makes no difference... It's all the same loop.

As to why I decided to begin the description of the pattern on the man's RF instead of his LF like most other American syllabi, there are two main reasons:

(1) Conceptually, I think most people think of the Cha Cha pattern as rock step, cha cha cha. If such a pattern starts with the man's LF, then his first action is his forward rock. This is how it's described in the Int'l syllabus, and it's how I think it should be described in the American syllabus as well. The RF side is not actually part of the pattern itself; It is merely a "prep step", which can be thought of as either the last step of the previous pattern, or a possibility for the first step of the dance (assuming you start on count 1).

(2) Quite a few of the fundamental Cha Cha patterns are more commonly started with the man's LF rock. Take the basic Crossover Break. It's quite awkward and somewhat difficult to start in a closed hold and begin the pattern to the man's left (his RF rock). Almost everybody therefore dances the first Crossover to the man's right (his LF rock), when starting from a closed hold.

The "other guys", feeling the need to describe every pattern as starting side on man's LF, force themselves to commence the pattern with half a Basic. In so doing, they are describing the half-Basic as an integral and necessary part of the Crossover, as if you're never "allowed" to dance a Crossover without first doing a half-Basic.

In keeping with the social and improvisational spirit of American style, our philosophy in building our syllabus has been to make it as component-oriented as possible, to strip away the unnecessary garbage and describe the patterns in their purest form. From there we try to list examples of what might come before or after a pattern (eg you can do a half-Basic before a Crossover, but you can also do B,C,D or E). Then we show an assortment of amalgamations involving such ideas.

To this end, we've eliminated the part of the Crossover that's not actually a Crossover -- the half-Basic. The pattern truly begins with the man's LF forward in side by side position. Add a prep step to show how it links to the previous pattern (or how you could start the dance), and it begins with the man's RF side.

I hope all this makes sense. If not, you can think of the start and end points of the pattern in whatever way you feel comfortable. Just take the patterns in our syllabus and reverse the order of the measures. Voila! Everything now starts on the man's LF side.

As for starting the whole dance, just remember: Don't get stuck in "Always". Unless, of course, you're thinking "Always try something new." Now go ahead and take your partner onto the floor and without telling her what's coming, spin her in to shadow position and start dancing the Sweetheart... starting with your LF forward!

Regards,
Jonathan

I suspect that one of the reasons American style often includes the sideways "prep step" at the beginning is because it is a step on the 1 beat of the music. Since the 1 is usually easiest to hear and most familiar to start on, it gives beginners help getting started and gets them doing the rock step properly on 2.