La Stéphanoise is a schottische-style sequence created and published in the late nineteenth century by French dancing master and writer Eugène Giraudet. The first reference I have to it is in the seventh edition of Giraudet's Traité de la danse, published in the early 1890s. Since I do not have any earlier editions, I don't know precisely when it was first included in Traité. More specifics come from the lengthy dance list in the second volume of the gigantic 58th edition (c1900), where it is attributed to Giraudet himself, with "Hamel" given as the composer of the music and a date of 1892. The description of the sequence is word-for-word identical in both editions.
The first publication of La Stéphanoise was probably in the form of instructions printed on the eponymous sheet music. I believe that the full name of the composer was Camille Hamel, who composed other dance music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including pieces associated with Giraudet, but I have not been able to locate the original sheet music, though there are quite a few pieces with a title that is some variation of La Stéphanoise. Fortunately, Giraudet specifically stated that "Au cas ou l'on n'aurait pas la musique spécialement réservée à cette danse, il suffira de prendre la musique d'une schottisch quelconque." (My translation: "In case one does not have the music specially reserved for this dance, the music of any schottische will suffice.")
Giraudet, never shy about promoting his own works, helpfully explained that:
Cette danse, bien que de création récente, a obtenu dès ses débuts un véritable succès, surtout chez les connaisseurs; aussi les professeurs et artistes, l'ont-il adoptée avec un empressement significatif. L'effet produit par cette nouvelle danse est des plus gracieux, et il n'est pas de bonne société, qui ne la possède dans son répertoire. Le succès, qui l'a accueillie à ses débuts, ne fera que s'accroître, ce qui sera peut-être difficile étant donné l'engoûment actuel.
My loose translation:
This dance, although of recent creation, has obtained, since its début, genuine success, above all among connoisseurs -- also teachers and artists -- who have adopted it with significant alacrity. The effect produced by this new dance is of the most gracious, and he who does not have it in his repertoire is not of good society. The success which has welcomed it since its début can only increase, which may be difficult given its current popularity.
La Stéphanoise is an easy and relaxing variation, eight measures long (like a "doubled" schottische, or twice through a normal schottische sequence). It is gently paced, like a stretched-out version of the second half of English dance master William Lamb's so-called "American Schottische". Personally, I don't find La Stéphanoise long enough to be satisfying as a sequence dance repeated over and over, though I expect that's what Giraudet intended, but I rather like it as a variation. It's pleasant to do a few times through with a bit of improvisation in the quantity and timing of the turns (see the notes below) amidst one's overall late-nineteenth-century French schottische.
For the sequence given below, the dancers start in closed hold, with the gentleman facing the wall and the lady the center, the gentleman beginning with his left foot and the lady with her right.
La Stéphanoise (eight measures of schottische)
1b Slide-close-slide-hop (half-turn)
1b Slide-close-slide-hop (quarter-turn, leaving gentleman facing line of dance)
1b Two slow gliding steps, turning a quarter at the end with a hop, on the upbeat of the next bar
1b (Hop)slide-close-slide-pause (half-turn, raising the free foot behind at the end)
(at this point the dancers are turned halfway, "over elbows", second foot - gentleman's right, lady's left - ready for the repeat)
1b Slide-close-slide-hop (half-turn)
1b Slide-close-slide-hop (quarter-turn, leaving gentleman's back to line of dance)
1b Two slow gliding steps, turning a quarter at the end with a hop, on the upbeat of the next bar
1b (Hop)slide-close-slide-pause (half-turn, raising the free foot behind at the end)
Giraudet describes the first two bars as "polka" steps, but this is how he routinely refers to schottische steps. In his detailed description of the schottische, is noted that at end of the "polka" one adds a gentle hop ("plus un léger saut en comptant 4") or possibly just a "rise" without actually leaving the ground.
The step of the fourth and eighth bars he describes as a "polka-sauté", and he breaks it down in detail as given above.
Since the steps of La Stéphanoise are languid to the point of stuporous at normal schottische tempo (around 65 beats per minute), I would recommend dancing it only to fairly brisk music, 75-85 beats per minute. In the absence of live musicians, there's a lovely piece, "Big Boot Dance", on the album Le Bal du Kiosque à Musique
Reconstruction and performance notes
The only ambiguity in the general reconstruction is in the timing. I experimented with dancing La Stéphanoise at double the speed given, relative to the music, with truer "polka" steps counted as "1&2". That works physically with slightly slower music and would match the timing used by Lamb. Since Giraudet listed La Stéphanoise as taking eight measures, this would imply that the unknown original music was written as eight bars of 2/4 rather than eight bars of 4/4. That's not impossible, since schottische music was sometimes written that way, but I think it less likely. Giraudet is consistent in describing schottisches as four-bar sequences, and describing the "polka" in the schottische as taking one bar of schottische music. I believe he means this to take twice as long as a standard schottische sequence, meaning the languorous turns and glides given above.
A specific ambiguity, which I regard more as "space to improvise", is that, technically, Giraudet does not say that the "polka" steps actually turn. The only directions given are that the first two walking steps are forward (for the cavalier) and the next two backward. This is a rather common omission, and I don't believe that it means that the dancers don't turn at all. But one could, for example, do a gentle zigzag along the line of dance on the first two "polka" steps, the gentleman moving diagonally forward and the lady diagonally backward, then the two walking steps as above, then a half-turn on the "polka-sauté", repeating the entire sequence with the gentleman's back to line of dance until a final half-turn. That's actually quite a nice sequence, very much in the spirit of the early schottische (in which the first part didn't always turn). There's certainly room for that interpretation within the instructions given, and I quite like it as a variation when dancing and as a stepping-stone when teaching it.
Getting even more technical: Giraudet does not actually state that the dance is done in a closed hold; in theory it could be done holding hands or in a half-hold with outside hands free. Rather than the lady dancing opposite, both dancers would move straight forward along the line of dance on the first two walking steps and straight backward on the other two. I think this is considerably less likely, but I can't completely rule it out. I wouldn't recommend it as a variation for general use, however, since going backward against line of dance is awkward and potentially dangerous unless all the couples in the ballroom are moving in unison.
About the name
"Stéphanoise" is the feminine form of "Stéphanois" and simply means a female inhabitant of the city of Saint-Étienne (Saint Stephen). The most likely reference is the largest French city by that name, but there are also quite a few other Saint-Étiennes -- see the list here -- as well as variants like Saint-Estèphe, so it's impossible to say for certain. I strongly doubt that there is any meaningful choreographic connection with any particular Saint-Étienne; the name just comes from the specific piece of music it was written to match. There might be some musical link, but in the absence of the original sheet music, it's impossible to say.
Special thanks to Denis for patiently dancing this with me over and over at both
normal and double speed while I worked through my thoughts on tempo!
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