The Stephanie Gavotte is a short (eight-bar) schottische/gavotte sequence which George Washington Lopp, in La Danse (Paris, 1903), attributed to M. B. Gilbert. It had previously appeared in Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) without any specific attribution.
The sequence was almost certainly created for the popular "Stéphanie-Gavotte", op. 312 of Austro-Hungarian composer Alphons Czibulka (1842-1894). The piece was composed in 1880 in honor of the engagement of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium and apparently became enormously popular. It's quite easy to find the sheet music; the Library of Congress alone has eighteen copies of it online, including this 1885 edition, from which the image at left was taken. Performances and recordings of it are likewise easy to find; here's a nice one by the Belgian orchestra Brabelio:
Since the Stephanie Gavotte has the dancers not traveling at all during four of the eight bars of the sequence (first/second and fifth/sixth), I would strongly recommend treating this as a specific sequence dance to its specific music rather than using it as a variation when dancing schottische socially.
The starting position for the dancers is facing each other with hands "resting in natural position". Gilbert did not specify how they should be oriented, but it is easiest to start the running steps in the third bar if the gentleman's back is to line of dance.
The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances on the opposite foot. Note that the gentleman starts with the right foot and the lady with the left!
Stephanie Gavotte (eight bars of 4/4 to "Stéphanie-Gavotte")
1234 Slide right to second, close left to first, bowing (1234) [lady curtsies]
12 Slide left to second, taking right hands with partner (1) and touch right in raised fifth behind, bending the left knee slightly (2)
34 Slide right to second, taking left hands with partner (3) and touch left in raised fifth behind, bending the right knee slightly (4)
(take normal closed position)
1234 Run backwards four steps, left-right-left-right (1234), turning slightly to the right on the fourth step
&1&2&3 Three chassé (close left/slide right x3) sideways along line of dance (&1&2&3)
4& Two "cuts" (left displacing right, then right displacing left), making a quarter turn to the right and ending with left in second raised, with the lady's back to line of dance
(separate to face each other again for the opposite-foot repeat)
1234 Slide left to second, close right to first, bowing (1234) [lady curtsies]
12 Slide right to second, taking left hands with partner (1) and touch left in raised fifth behind, bending the right knee slightly (2)
34 Slide left to second, taking right hands with partner (3) and touch right in raised fifth behind, bending the left knee slightly (4)
(take normal closed position)
1234 Run forward four steps, right-left-right-left (1234), turning slightly to the right on the fourth step
&1&2&3 Three chassé (close right/slide left x3) sideways along line of dance (&1&2&3)
4& Two "cuts" (right displacing left, then left displacing right), making a quarter turn to the right and ending with right in second raised, with the gentleman's back to line of dance
(separate to face each other again and repeat from the beginning)
Reconstruction and Performance Notes
1. Lopp had the dancers taking both hands at the beginning. I don't like this for the initial side step and bow/curtsy, and since the sequence was attributed to Gilbert, I prefer to follow his style of simply facing each other without touching.
2. Lopp messed up the sequence slightly, cutting the bow/curtsy short and redistributing the two following "step, dip/touch" bits across six beats. I think this was simply an error, but even if intentional, I would once more follow Gilbert.
3. The little "cut-cut" at the end of every four bars is like a miniature racket, very typical of late nineteenth century American dancing.
4. The steps from side to side changing hands are strongly reminiscent of elements of sixteenth century Italian balletti. In Ardente Sole (Caroso, 1581), for example, the sequence:
un Passo col piè sinistro al fianco sinistro, & toccando la fè destra fanno insieme la Riverenza minima col piè destro: dopò con lo stesso piè destro, si fa un' altro passo al fianco destro, toccando la fè sinistra; poi facendo Riverenza col piè sinistro in dietro
which is to say, a step to the left with the left foot, touching right hands and making a reverence by bringing the right foot behind, then a step to the right with the right foot, touching left hands and making a reverence with the left foot behind. There was quite a fad for dubious reconstructions of early dance in the late nineteenth century, so I doubt this is complete coincidence. It would be fascinating to know what exactly inspired Gilbert in this choreography.
Tempo
Gilbert's standard tempo for schottische (as given in Round Dancing) was 76 beats per minute, counting two beats to every measure of 4/4 time. Lopp listed the same tempo specifically for La Gavotte Stéphanie. I personally find that a bit brisk, and prefer to dance the Stephanie Gavotte at around 64 beats per minute.
Music
As noted above, it's quite easy to find recordings of "Stéphanie-Gavotte", though most of them will have noticeable ritards that make them a bit tricky to dance to if the dancers are not familiar with the music and expecting them, and many of them are funereally slow. If one has live musicians, I would recommend asking them to play it at a steady rhythm, or at least minimize the ritards. Lacking them, here's one nice recording at a reasonable 64 beats per minute; one could speed it up electronically if one really wants to dance it faster.
Other "Stéphanie-Gavotte" Choreographies
Gilbert was not the only choreographer to be inspired by "Stéphanie-Gavotte". French dancing master Eugène Giraudet published a "Gavotte Stéphanie" for four couples in quadrille formation in (at least) the 55th edition of his enormous dance manual, La danse, la tenue, le maintien, l'hygiène & l'éducation (c1900), reprinting it in his 1913 Méthode moderne pour bien apprendre la danse. Even more interestingly, Volume II of Gilbert Dances (1913, Susan Hoffman Gilman, ed.), the posthumous collection of dances used by M. B. Gilbert in his classes, included a different couple dance for "Stéphanie-Gavotte", the Wayside Gavotte. It is attributed to Helen C. Way, presumably one of Gilbert's pupils, as Gilman specifically noted that Gilbert used dances composed by his students and that those were attributed when known. It is more like a standard schottische in style. (Edited May 26, 2019, to add: my reconstruction of the Wayside Gavotte is here.)
(Edited August 31, 2019, to add: the Stephanie Gavotte appeared on a souvenir ball program, which was not actually danced, of the reunion of Shaler's Brigade in 1988. More about this program may be found here.)
Comments