English dance teacher William Lamb, in his Everybody's Guide to Ball-Room Dancing (London c1898-1900), published quite a few short dance sequences, most of limited interest to the average dancer. His American Schottische has more potential than most of these because it does not involve any reverse-line-of-dance movement and thus can be easily used as a simple variation when dancing a late 19th-century schottische.
Despite the name, there is nothing specifically American about this particular sequence, and it does not seem to have been taken up by other writers/compilers of dance manuals, even those who otherwise plagiarized Lamb quite freely. I suspect it was not a particular hit, perhaps never having any life in period outside the pages of Lamb's book. Nonetheless, I find it quite danceable and an interesting break from more typical schottische patterns.
The sequence does not divide neatly into the usual two parts of the schottische (as described in a previous post here) and is even more unusual in its lack of internal repetition. The labels used below for each bar are directly from Lamb's instructions.
American Schottische (four bars of schottische music)
Starting position: normal late-19th century ballroom hold, gentleman's back to center of room
First bar (Pas de Bourrée)
1 Slide left foot to side
2 Close right foot to third position
3 Slide left foot to side
4 Close right foot to third position
Second bar (Chassé and Two Step)
1 Slide left foot to side
&2 Close right to left and slide left to side again (chassé)
&3 Repeat chassé, starting to turn clockwise
&4 Repeat chassé, completing half-turn
(this bar is essentially a four-slide galop with a half-turn at the end)
Third bar (Two Step)
1&2 Two-step; half-turn starting right foot (RLR)
3&4 Two-step; half-turn starting left foot (LRL)
(the second two-step is underturned to leave the gentleman's back to line of dance)
Fourth bar (Pas Marche and Two Step)
1 Gentleman's back to line of dance, step right straight backwards (lady forward left)
2 Gentleman steps back left (lady forward right)
3&4 Two-step; half-turn starting right foot (RLR)
(between beats 2 and 3 the couple must turn one quarter clockwise to prepare for the final two-step)
The couple ends in starting position, with the gentleman's back to the center of the room, and can then restart this or some other schottische sequence. They could also underturn the final two-step to end with the gentleman facing line of dance in order to use a sequence starting in that position.
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