Hmmm,The point trying to be made is the roots of the dance. You certainly wouldn't dance a BALLET to a TAP DANCE,a waltz to swing, or hip hop to a square dance, or then again with your thinking maybe you would. Go and study the history of Mambo, cha cha cha, and then maybe you can understand why there are a few dancers out there that still cherrish the way the original dances were performed. Too bad you never had the experience of going to the Paladium on Broadway in NYC or the Bronx Casino, Star dust ballroom to see performers like Tito Puente, Machito, Potato Valdez, Joe cuba,Mongo Santa Maria,Orlando Marin, Eddie Palmeri, Johnny Pacheco and on and on.
This is where the true dance steps were born, not by teachers but by people who practiced dancing at home and came up with steps and then performed them at the Paladium and then were copied by others, teachers and dancers. Where do you think these steps evolved from, certainly not the dance schools.
The Paladium is where dancing on 2 evolved, from the Double Mambo, into the Triple Mambo, which evolved into the cha cha cha.In the early 60's Dancers that went to Cuba came back with the cuban cha cha cha. which was the fore runner of the CHARANGA and PACHANGA which was introduced in the United States by JOHNNY PACHECO. I danced professionally for 40 years. Do yourself a favor and listen to EL CAYUCO or OYE COMO VA from the album" live at birdland" by TITO PUENTE not SANTANA who stole the song from TITO PUENTE.Those are cha cha cha's and if you want great Mambo's listen to COCO SECO, or the song CUBAN FANTASY by TITO from the album of CUBAN CARNIVALE. Too bad TITO PUENTE is gone but as long as people listen and dance to his music he will always be alive.
Maybe if more people had an understanding of the origins of the music and dance, then they would appreciate what i am trying to convey.
