(Note 6/3/24: I've written a follow-up to this post; the link is at the end. My reconstruction stands.)
I picked La Russe out some time ago while looking for easy late nineteenth century waltz-time variations. The name means "the Russian woman", and I recently had the pleasure of teaching it in Moscow to a very talented group of Russian dancers.
No specific choreographer is known for La Russe, but we can date it with unusual precision to just over 130 years ago. Dancing master M. B. Gilbert, in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), noted that it was "introduced by the American Society of Professors of Dancing, New York, May 1st, 1882," and it turns up in a couple of other American dance manuals of the 1880s. All the descriptions are quite consistent, though the terminology used varies.
Slide left foot to the side (2d), 1; draw right to left (1st). and slide left to side (chassé), & 2; draw right to left (1st), 3: slide left to side (2d), 4; draw right to left (1st), 5; slide left to side (2d), 6; two measures. Repeat, commencing with the right foot.
The dancers are in standard waltz position, the gentleman facing the wall. The lady dances the same moves on opposite feet. Both Gilbert and Lopp note that the turn is made on the second measure. Gilbert further explains that movements should be made directly to the side in the first measure. Lopp gives a metronome count of 144.
The reconstruction (gentleman's steps given) is straightforward:
1 Slide left foot sideways (second position) along line of dance
&2 Close right to left (first position) and once again slide left sideways (second position)
3 Close right to left
1 Slide left foot sideways (second position) along line of dance
2 Close right to left (first position)
3 Slide left sideways (second position), turning halfway round
Repeat the entire sequence "over elbows", gentleman starting with the right foot.
To better enable the turn in the second bar, the lady should shorten her steps so that the gentleman can pass in front of her. On the repeat, the gentleman should shorten his steps and guide the lady around him.
C. H. Rivers, in his A Full Description of Modern Dances (Brooklyn, 1885) gives a wordier description:
First Measure.--Two glissades to the left.
Two glissades consist of four glisses or slides, as follows:--Glide left foot to 2d position, then glide right foot to 1st position, which make one glissade, count one; glide left foot to 2d position, count two; glide right foot to 1st position, count three, making the second glissade.
Second Measure.--One glissade and one glisse to the left.
One glissade and one glisse are simply three glides, as follows:--Glide left foot to 2d position, count one; glide right foot to 1st position, count two; glide left foot to 2d position, count three. The step of the 2d measure is similar to Polka.
No turning is made on the 1st measure. A half turn is made on the 2d measure.
Rivers uses somewhat odd terminology, with a glissade being two glisses and a glisse being either a slide to the side (second position) or a sideways close of one foot to the other (first position), but he is clearly describing the same dance.
M. J. Koncen, in Professor M. J. Koncen's Quadrille Call Book and Ball Room Guide (St. Louis, 1883) offers simply that "a glisse is a half glide", using "glide" in the way Rivers uses "glissade", and describes La Russe as:
Glide with the left foot two steps in the direction of the left and execute one glide and a glisse. Glide two steps with the right foot in the direction of the right and perform one glide and a glisse.
This once again works out to the same dance sequence.
While none of the authors suggest reversing La Russe, there is no physical reason the dance cannot turn to the left as well as the right, as many dances of the era do, or, for that matter, be danced at gentle diagonal angles, with either the lady or (more politely but more dangerously) the gentleman moving backwards along the line of dance.
One final note of interest: Gilbert places La Russe not under his waltz section but under the "Redowa and Mazurka" category. Lopp places it under neither waltz nor mazurka but instead under a separate Two Step et Three Step heading, and nonetheless labels it a mazurka, as he does other three-step variations. While both waltz and mazurka are danced in 3/4 time, the accent of the music differs.
Rivers, however, puts La Russe directly after his description of the waltz, and while Koncen places it right after his Mazourka Waltz, the placement does not appear to be significant, as this is part of a long list of other waltzes with no specific intent apparent in their ordering. It's hard to know whether Rivers and Koncen considered it simply another waltz or whether the desirability of the mazurka accent was so obvious they saw no need to mention it. I would regard dancing La Russe to mazurka music as preferable but to waltz music as both possible and reasonable.
(Edited 6/3/24 to add: read more about La Russe and hear a snippet of the official music for it here! This clarifies that it was meant as an independent dance rather than a variation and that it was definitely intended for mazurka-accented music. Last sentence of post edited to reflect this.)
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