Pachanga: The Little Known Dance That Almost Took America By Storm.

In 1961 New York City dance halls, a new sound was being heard, it wasn’t the driving rhythms of the Mambo or Merengue, nor was it the undulating Cha Cha Cha. This was a complex and melodic sound that was both energetic and yet also sophisticated, that sound was the Pachanga! The Pachanga in the U.S. is most commonly associated with the famous NYC Palladium theater that claimed itself “Home of the Mambo and Cha Cha Cha”. While it is true that the Palladium openly embraced and helped promote this new music and dance, it’s creation, success, and ultimate downfall reside in the hands of others. To truly understand the story of Pachanga we need first to understand the land and times of its origin.

Pachanga is the title of a song written in 1959 by Cuban composer and band leader Eduardo Davidson.

This was the same year that Fidel Castro seized power and It was to be the last big break through from Cuban airwaves to reach the U.S. On August 6, 1960 television began to be nationalized in Cuba and was immediately censored and utilized for political propaganda, by May 24, 1962 all media in nationalized. Most artists saw this censoring as unbearable for it limited their expression and a mass exodus of musicians ensues. On April 16, 1961 Castro declared Cuba a socialist state and on February 7, 1962 the U.S. Congress banned all imports from Cuba to the U.S. and with this deathblow nearly 40 years of cultural exchange come to an abrupt end. But not before one last export in the form of El Pachanga!

The song El Pachanga! debuted in a live performance on May 21, 1959 on the CMQ television’s musical program “Casino de la Alegria” and proved a hit almost immediately. For that performance Davidson hired dancers to interpret Pachanga music in five different Cuban ethnic styles. Truly an ingenious idea to appeal to a wide market, but he had actually choreographed a specific dance already, one tied to the music.

The actual roots of the sound lay in a Bembe-Samba hybrid. Brazilian Samba rhythms were combined by Davidson with Bembe music from the Afro-Cuban Lucumi culture utilizing a Charanga orchestral lineup. Charanga orchestras utilize a wooden flute, violins, bass, piano, guiro, timbales, and tumba to produce a delicate yet rhythmic sound.  Originally Eduardo Davidson’s choreography was based Afro-Cuban Lucumi dance, which came by way of the southwestern Nigerian Yoruba tribes Bata dances. Cuban culture is deeply tied to its African roots and nowhere is it more evident than in their music and dance.

It is estimated that 700,000 West Africans were shipped via the slave trade to the island of Cuba and of those 60% were from the Nigerian Yoruba related tribes. In Cuban culture the term Lucumi refers to the Yoruba people of four specific tribal ancestries that accounted for approximately 45% of the slave population. With the Yoruba people came their language, religion, music, and dance, much of which has survived to this day.

An interesting and easily confused side note is the mislabeling of the original sheet music as Merecumbe, a sort of Merengue-Cumbia musical form attributed to Colombian composer Pacho Galan. Davidson later explained he knew Pachanga was possibly a best seller and intentionally hid it under a unassuming genre heading on the sheet music, in order to throw off his musical rivals to the true constructs of this new sound. It was also labeled as Merengue on U.S. sheet music, publishers felt it would sell better if associated with a style already popular in the U.S. market.

While Davidson’s original choreography envisioned the dance being based on Lucumi Bembe style dances with flourishes of Samba no pe’ (a solo form), other dancers and trends within Cuban culture would just as quickly come to redefine it . Two of the most respected Cuban Orchestras of the time Jose’ Fajardo and Orquesta Aragon quickly capitalized on the new sound and collaborated with Davidson. These polished acts featured dancers who took elements of Davidson’s material and blended it with theirs, thus influencing the dance.

The influence of 40 years of Jazz music and dance on Cuban performers is quite evident in Pachanga as well. Many of the core elements of dance can be directly traced to dances popularized in U.S. cities during the roaring twenties Jazz, Swing, and Bop eras. Dance moves bearing names like Truckin’, Susie Q, St. Louis Hop, Drag Hesitation, Bop, and Shag had long since left their mark on Cuban chorus dancers who were keen to keep up with American trends for performances that often catered to wealthy American tourists. Cuban movie theaters often played American films and by the mid 1950’s T.V. was streaming American television programs into Cuban homes. Youth especially were tuning in with shows like American Bandstand disseminating all the latest fads.

It didn’t take long for a Miami based record shop named owner Sidney Trott to catch wind of the new craze. Sidney had previously lived in Havana Cuba and owned the largest dance studio there for many years. He was also an accomplished record producer while in Cuba and was very connected to the music industry in Both Havana and New York City.

One of his friends from his days as pro dancer, Bernie Sager, had also relocated to Miami from New York City. Sidney wasted no time and called Bernie from Havana, convincing him to take a research trip to Cuba in January of 1960 to learn it first hand.

Bernie upon arrival took to the streets and literally carrying a stack of bills threw money at anyone who could teach him a new Pachanga step. Sidney later recalled with amusement the massive crowd that soon formed around Bernie. After returning to Miami Bernie devised a Ballroom (partner) version of the dance using the most common Pachanga steps. Bernie debuted the Pachanga to a crowd of 15,000 in Miami on May 21, 1960 at a concert featuring the quite famous Jose’ Fajardo’s Charanga Orchestra (no doubt Sidney helped line the show up). Sidney then traveled to New York City, teaching it to many prominent instructors there. It didn’t take long and by May of 1961 New York’s Latin dance scene was Pachanga crazed.

Sadly, there were not enough Charanga bands outside of major cities to introduce the sound to the greater public, nor was the energetic polyrhythmic dance within the grasp of most casual dancers. Pachanga soon faded into obscurity almost as quickly as it arrived, surviving now in movements adopted into Bachata, Cha Cha Cha, or shine steps in Salsa.

The writing may have always been on the wall though. John Lucchese a prominent New York dance master who literally wrote the book in 1961 on Pachanga alluded to Pachanga’s future fate. Lucchese felt the music and dance where simply too complex for the average person, and that while Mambo and Cha Cha Cha where firmly established, Pachanga simply wouldn’t take root. He correctly surmised that it’s only hope for survival was in being adapted as steps to add to the already established forms Mambo and Cha Cha.