La Franco-Russe is another of the short French schottische-based sequences of the late nineteenth-century France. Like La Stéphanoise, it is a double-length sequence, eight bars of schottische music, and presumably had its own special tune which has, alas not surfaced during my searches. Unlike La Stéphanoise, it is more of the Pas-de-Quatre style of schottische (with the dancers holding only inside hands to start and coming together in the second half) and has a clearly-explained reason for its name. It also differs in having a true "double" (AABB) schottische pattern and no ambiguity in its timing. And, finally, it may have had a bit more success than La Stéphanoise, or at least been more favored by Giraudet himself.
Giraudet stated that La Franco-Russe was "créée en l'honneur des officiers russes à leur visite à Paris en 1893." This visit was part of a series of negotiations between France and Russia that led to the Dual Alliance, also known in the west as the Franco-Russian Alliance and in Russia as the Russian-French Alliance. At left, a French political cartoon from 1893 (click to enlarge) shows the French symbol, Marianne, cuddling with the Russian bear.
There was quite a vogue for things Russian, or imagined to be Russian, in Paris during the early 1890s, and La Franco-Russe is one of several dances with a Russian or Alliance theme.
La Franco-Russe does not appear in the seventh edition of Giraudet's Traité de la danse, published in the early 1890s, probably just before La Franco-Russe was written. I don't know precisely when it was first included in Traité, but the 58th edition (c1900) gives the information above and, in its lengthy glossary of dances, lists the choreographer as Giraudet himself and the composer as Chaudoir, presumably Félix Chaudoir, who also composed the music for Giraudet's Galopade. The same description appears, word for word, in the compilation La Danse, by American expatriate [George] Washington Lopp, which was published in Paris in 1903. It's hard to tell whether inclusion in Lopp means anything about the popularity of the dance, since Lopp's criteria for inclusion are unknown, but at least it means it was noticed by someone outside Giraudet's own studio.
Whether it was better-received than La Stéphanoise or just pushed harder by Giraudet, I find it interesting that it pops up over and over in his 58th edition. Giraudet includes dozens of little sequences like this in his book, but most of them are never referred to anywhere else. La Franco-Russe turns up on at least four lists of dances, most of which are much better-known.
1. The dances a young man should know:
Un jeune homme fera excuser sa gaucherie ou sa timidité dans le monde, en s'y conduisant avec une correction parfaite. Il doit savoir danser la valse, boston, polka-mazurka, schottisch, polka, parisienne, ostendaise, quadrilles: américain, croisé, lanciers; pas-de-deux, pas-de-quatre, berline, franco-russe, et l'élégante, car il est surtout invité pour cela. (p. 24)
2. Examples of dances in which one takes the lady by the hand:
Comment on doit présenter la main et le bras à une danseuse en l'invitant, soit pour les quadrille;, ou pour toute autre danse. et aussi pour celles qui se font en se donnant la main, telles que Pas-de-Quatre, Pas-de-Deux, Franco Russe, etc. (p. 29)
3. The dance program introduced in schools for young ladies:
Le programme mentionne même une innovation toute particulière; on apprendra aux jeunes filles à sautiller sur les deux pieds puis les Pas-de-Quatre, l'Elégante, la Franco-Russe. (p. 36)
4. The length of time dances should last:
La polka dure environ 5 minutes
La valse " 5 "
La mazurka " 4 "
La schottisch " 4 "
Le Pas-de-Deux " 3 "
Le Pas-de-Trois " 2 "
Le Pas-de-Quatre " 4 "
La Franco-Russe et l'Elégante durent environ 5 minutes chaque.
(p. 73)
Getting back to the Alliance theme, Giraudet explained that the two parts of the dance, the slow march and the brisker waltz, were characteristic of Russian and French styles:
Cette danse est grave, et doit être marchée majesteusement, d'un pas lent, le cavalier la main sur la hanche, le corps droit et souple, et la tête haute (genre russe). Les dames tiennent légèrement leur robe de la main droite. Puis, après la marche russe, la valse française gracieusement cadencée. Cavalier et dame partent ensemble, l'un du pied gauche, l'autre du droit, et vice versa.
My loose translation:
This dance is grave, and must be marched majestically, with a slow step, the gentleman with his hand on his hip, the body upright and supple, and the head high (Russian style). The ladies take their dress lightly in their right hands. Then, after the Russian march, the French waltz, graciously brisk. Gentleman and lady set out together, one on the left foot, the other on the right, and vice versa.
Giraudet was not the only choreographer to suggest this contrast in Russian and French movement styles. It makes me wonder whether the French ever saw their Russian visitors do anything other than a polonaise!
The starting position is the typical one for Pas-de-Quatre-style dances, side by side with the gentleman holding the lady's left hand in his right, held at shoulder height. As described above, his free hand is at his hip (palm outward) and her free hand holds her skirt lightly out to the side. Heads are held high. He begins with the left foot and she with the right, alternating feet normally thereafter.
La Franco-Russe (eight measures of schottische music)
1b Two slow gliding steps forward along line of dance.
1b Slide-close-slide-hop (gentleman crossing in front of the lady to the outside while she makes small steps toward the inside; take new inside hands)
2b Repeat (lady crossing in front of the gentleman to end in a closed ballroom hold)
4b Four full turns of waltz
Repeat indefinitely
Performance Notes
1. Yes, that really is four complete turns of waltz, not four measures (generally four half-turns or two complete turns) of waltz. The dance is in 4/4 time, and the waltz -- using the same trois temps steps as the conventional 3/4 waltz -- is counted "1...&2, 3...&4" instead of "123, 456". One complete turn fits into each measure of schottische. It is, as Giraudet notes, quite sprightly, with the fractional delay in the second beat characteristic of the schottische and strathspey.
2. At the end of the waltz segment, the dancers need to spring apart quickly to break their embrace and take inside hands once more to restart the sequence. Giraudet generally recommends skipping the last two beats of waltz movement, stepping apart on the first beat of the second measure and holding position. This requires some practice to do gracefully.
3. The overall track of the dancers in the first part is not difficult to lead, but the change in step from walking to slide-close-slide-hop is more difficult, especially since the gentleman crosses in front of the lady when the step changes. If the dance is being done as a specific sequence-for-all, the lady will know the steps and it won't be a problem. But if using this as an improvised variation within a pas-de-quatre, I would suggest doing the same overall pattern, moving only in a straight line on the first part, once or twice first, to establish the step pattern, before doing the Franco-Russe crossovers. But if the lady misses the change in step, she needs to do whatever is necessary to free her right foot at the end of the first half so she is ready for the waltz when she arrives in the gentleman's embraces. Skipping the change entirely and simply doing eight slow walking steps will work in a pinch.
Reconstruction Note
The timing of the steps relative to the music is clear from the four turns of waltz in four measures of music. Giraudet's standard description of the schottische is two turns in two measures of music, so the step-music correlation is the conventional one.
Music
As noted, I haven't actually located the Franco-Russe music, but since it is very clearly in the pattern of a pas-de-quatre or schottische, any such tune will work. Lopp gives it a metronome of 84 to the blanche (half note), which feels rather brisk to me; I find the waltz segment much more pleasant at a range more like 60 to 70 beats per minute.
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