The Cha-cha-cha (in Spanish Cha-cha-chá) is a Latin American dance of Cuban origin. It corresponds to the Cha-cha-cha music introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín. This rhythm was developed from the danzon by a synchopation of the fourth beat. The name of the dance came from the shuffling sound of the dancers' feet as they executed the chassee. See Cha-cha-chá (Cuban dance) for a description of the Cuban evolution of the dance.

The dance teacher Pierre Margolie ('Monsieur Pierre') from London, a founder of the Latin American Faculty of the ISTD, visited Cuba in 1952 to find out how and what Cubans were dancing at the time. He noted that this new dance had a split 4th beat, and to dance it one started on the second beat, not the first. He brought this dance idea to England and eventually created what is known now as ballroom Cha-cha-cha.

The validity of his analysis is well established for that time, and some forms of evidence exist today. First, there is in existence film of Orquesta Jorrin playing to a cha-cha-cha dance contest in Cuba; second, the rhythm of the Benny More classic Santa Isabel de las Lajas written and recorded at about the same time is quite clearly synchopated on the fourth beat. Also, note that the slower bolero-son ("rumba") was always danced on the second beat.