Third in my impromptu mini-series of late-nineteenth century French dances based on the schottische or pas-de-quatre is La Lyonnaise, which appears to me to be unimportant in and of itself but somewhat interesting as an example of typical variations and a source for variations to use in improvisation. Despite having been published in 1890, it does not appear in the seventh edition of Eugène Giraudet's Traité de la danse, published in the early 1890s. It does turn up by the 58th edition (c1900), which informs us (via the extensive dance glossary in volume II) that Giraudet choreographed it himself. I don't think it does him any particular credit; it's just a mishmash of steps.
The dance itself is quite simple, except perhaps in remembering the sequence. The starting position is side by side, hand in hand, free hands on the hip (his) or holding the skirt (hers). As usual, the gentleman starts with the left foot and the lady with the right, alternating thereafter.
La Lyonnaise (16 measures of schottische time)
1b Slide-close-slide-hop
1b Two slow gliding steps forward
2b Repeat (starting on one's second foot)
(take closed position)
2b Slide-close-slide (pause), slide-close-slide (pause) (gentle zig-zag along line of dance; see notes below)
2b Two complete turns of waltz (rhythm 1&2, 3&4)
(take inside arms)
4b Eight march steps forward
(take closed position)
4b Four complete turns or waltz
(separate to repeat again)
Performance and Reconstruction Notes
1. The degree of turn (or not) in the slide-close-slide is not specified. One could make a full turn, or do one slide-close-slide along line of dance and then one against line of dance. The latter is workable only if the whole room is doing it; otherwise there will be crashes. This is not the only instance of Giraudet forgetting to mention a turn, so it's possible that he intended one, but in the absence of illustrated instructions or diagrams, one can't be 100% certain. I've settled on a zig-zag motion for better contrast with the following waltz turns, but I wouldn't be bothered by doing a slow turn instead.
2. The timing of that same part is an interpretation on my part because Giraudet's instructions are flawed. He makes eighteen bars of dance rather than sixteen by giving each "two slides of the foot" two measures of music for a total of four before going on to two measures of waltz:
cavalier, deux glissés du pied gauche. Dame, deux glissés du pied droit (2 mesures); cavalier, 2 glissés du pied droit; dame, deux glissés du pied gauche (2 mesures)
The only way to stretch the steps into four bars and still fit the sixteen-bar dance would be to omit the two bars of waltz in the middle. Nothing else can be removed without awkwardness. But I find one slide of the foot per measure of schottische music for four bars to be unbearably tedious to the point of unlikely. So I believe that the intention was to do all of the above quoted material in two measures total. The first "(2 mesures)" is a printing error.
3. And, yes, the directions for that part say "two slides of the foot" ("deux glissés du pied...") . That usually means an unspoken weight shift by closing the feet in between, as Giraudet spells out elsewhere. It's obviously not possible to do another weight shift at the end and still start on the second foot as specified.
Music
Interestingly, no composer is listed; the only credit is Giraudet. Was he composer as well as choreographer? Or was there no specific music for this dance? I haven't found any so far. It (or its component pieces) will work to any schottische/pas-de-quatre piece.
As material for improvisation
As noted above, I'm not terribly impressed with this as a sequence. It's quadruple-length, which is a bit ridiculous, and the parts don't come together in any coherent way. I'd be surprised if specific music improved this. But I'm interested in the parts themselves. First, the reverse of the "step-step, slide-close-slide-hop" sequence that also appears in La Franco-Russe. Here it begins with the pas-de-quatre/schottische step (which Giraudet persists in calling a "polka step") instead, still offering the same lead/follow challenge in changing steps. The slow zig-zags (or turns) are slow and restful. And the arm-in-arm hold of the march steps makes them a little more interesting than just a very long series of walking steps...though eight is still a lot of walking!
So if one doesn't want to do the whole sequence in this order, I would not object to extracting the various pieces as examples of things that dancing masters of the time (or at least Giraudet) found acceptable to do during this kind of music and using them in improvisation.
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