February is about Lovin' Latin Workshops

Our first workshops of the semester will be held next Sunday. The first part of the day will be in the Ramsey center from 1-4 p.m. while the second part will take place at our normal time of 7-8:30 p.m. in Memorial Hall Ballroom.

The day has three sessions: the first two are Argentine Tango lessons and the final session is a Cha Cha lesson. Pricing is $8 per session for students and $10 for non students for each additional session you attend the pricing goes down (see flier picture for matrix). If you are wondering why the pricing is different than our regular Sunday Night Lesson, the answer is that, workshop teachers are paid for their time and are not volunteers.

We are very excited to have Fuad Elhage teaching our Argentine Tango lesson. So many people have requested this lesson we are truly excited that it has come about.
Fuad's day job is all about teaching Spanish at the university, but in his dancing life he has taught Salsa at Last Call in downtown Athens, taught Argentine Tango with TangoRojo, a local Tango troupe, and preformed Tango and Salsa in Atlanta.

The cha cha lesson will be taught by our usual instructors, Rachel Holland and Brandon Buckner. You can look forward to new and fresh moves we often miss in our regular lessons and and styling tips.

You can attend the both cha cha and first Argentine Tango lesson with no prior experience. However, in order to attend the second tango session, you must attend the first tango session or have previous Argentine Tango experience.

We really hope you will come out and join us.

Cha Cha music

Cha cha is one of the easiest dances to find music for when building a playlist. It is written in 4/4 time, the most common time signature in today's music.

The typical tempo for cha cha is around 125 beats per minute (BPM). If your not a musician with the background in figuring out BPM, you can download this nifty tool to do it for you at MixMeister. Remember that BPM translate directly into steps per minute for your dancers, so you should be cognizant of their ability to keep up with the tempo.

Below is short list of some songs you might know, but not as cha cha songs:
(I should note that Ballroomdancers.com has a very extensive list its worth checking out)

Link disclaimer: So that you could click and actually hear some of these song I've linked to You tube. You should note all of these video have nothing to do with ballroom, they are for musical purposes only.

• Kiss the girl- The little mermaid
  
• I'll Die another Day - Madonna
  
• Smooth- Santana
  
• Can't Touch This - MC Hammer
• All I want to do -Sheryl Crow
• Rhythm is Gonna get you -Gloria Estefan
  

First Dates and Cha Cha

If Rumba is for passionate lovers and tango is for the lovers quarrel, then cha cha is for first dates. Not the awkward awful 'I can't even make conversation with him' first dates but the first dates with playful eyes, teasing giggles, and not-so-hidden winks. Cha cha is cheeky, flashy, and flirty.

This video is of Bryan Watson & Carmen Vincelj who are dancing international Cha Cha. They are professional dancers so the level of difficulty is in moves and styling in this video is very high, but you can still see some basic moves like the chase.