The Vienna, or La Viennoise, is a late nineteenth century schottische variant which originated in America and traveled to France with the inimitable George Washington Lopp, though it's not clear to me whether it had much (or any) popularity there or, for that matter, in America.
My first American source for the dance was, unsurprisingly, M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), which collected a wide assortment of the couple dances of the 1870s and 1880s. Gilbert and Lopp (in La Danse, 1903) agreed on how the Vienna was danced. Going with Gilbert's description, giving the gentleman's steps (lady dances opposite):
The Vienna (four measures of 4/4 schottische music)
(joining right hands with partner, facing the opposite direction)
1b Slide-cut-leap-hop forward, starting left, raising right to fourth on the hop
1b Repeat, starting on right foot
1b Slide left to side (1), close right to left (2), leap back onto left (&), slide right to side (3), close left to right (4)
1b Repeat, starting on right foot, leaping forward
Lopp mostly agreed, though he had the final repeat also leaping backward, which I believe to have been an editing error, since his instructions are otherwise almost word-for-word from Gilbert, translated into French.
There are...some problems with this.
Vienna:
12 Side-close
&34 Leap-side-close (waltz step)
Five-Step:
12 Side-close
34& Leap-side-close (waltz step)
Since that has to either incorporate the standard half-turn of the waltz (which would certainly be my interpretation) or have the dancers moving in a box pattern directly away from each other, doing it while holding right hands (ouch) and facing opposite directions is, ah, problematic.
The most obvious solution is that it is meant to be a closed-position waltz turn -- it certainly looks like one -- and that Gilbert just forgot to say "drop right hands and take waltz position". It's easy enough to do at the end of the two circling steps; just drop hands a bit early and curl around to face your partner.
This makes a fine, if slightly silly, little dance.
But there's another problem.
The Vienna is attributed by both Gilbert and Lopp to H. Fletcher Rivers, of the famous Rivers family of Brooklyn-based dance teachers. H. Fletcher was the son of C. H. Rivers, who published, c1891, a little booklet called New Dances which included a description of the Vienna. Is it safe to assume that C. H. Rivers understood his son's dance? One would think so. But his description of the first part is rather different from Gilbert's. I'll quote his text in full:
Join right hand with partner, facing opposite direction.
Step for Gentleman.--Displace, and replace left to fifth position (1); displace right and replace it behind left in fifth position (2); displace left and replace it to fifth position front of right (3); pivot on left, at same time turning one-quarter around and change hand with partner (4). Holding partner's left hand and facing opposite repeat the steps already described. Glide left foot to second position (1); draw right to third position behind (2); leap on left and instantly glide right to second position (3); draw left foot to third position behind right (4) thereby making half a turn; repeat the last four counts to complete the turn. Contra step for lady.
The second part is completely compatible with Gilbert and clarifies that yes, those really are half-turns, making a full turn, which means the dancers really have got to drop hands, even though Rivers doesn't mention that, either, and most likely take each other in closed ballroom hold, because each of them doing a waltz step alone just seems too weird in the context of late nineteenth century couple dance.
But the first part? That is not two schottische steps in a circle; it's more like a setting step. I would reconstruct it thus:
1 Raise left foot in front and bring it back to fifth position in front of right
2 Raise right foot in back and bring it back to fifth position behind left
3 Raise left foot in front and bring it back to fifth position in front of right
4 Pivot halfway round, clockwise, leaving right foot in front, and change to left hands
(Repeat all of that starting with the right foot and pivoting counter-clockwise)
Note that in order to have the dancers switch hands and face opposite directions again, the pivot has to be halfway, not a quarter.
C. H. Rivers' description seems very flat; I think the first two counts might be better interpreted as two "cuts", with the left foot displacing the right to a raised fourth behind and then the right displacing the left to a raised fourth in front. So it would be more like "cut-cut-close-pivot", which reminds me of Francis Peacock's Seby-trast (1805), though the overall structure with the hand touches is vaguely reminiscent of Fabritio Caroso's sixteenth-century "toccando la fé" sequences in which the dancers touch first right hands, then left.
Either way, closing or cutting, even if one decides that Gilbert and Lopp just forgot to mention the hand switch and turn, the steps just don't match. It isn't just a difference in wording. And, to be honest, I think that adding a hand switch and half-turn to the first half of the Gilbert/Lopp version would not be an improvement; it makes the dancers switch direction of travel twice to first about-face and then curl the other way to come into closed position. Going around in a circle is actually more graceful.
So, we appear to have two different versions of the Vienna: the Rivers one, which I think is arguably more likely to be the original, and the Gilbert/Lopp version, which may not match the original but, I suppose, qualifies as a dance of its own. Here are my reconstructions of the two:
Rivers
(take right hands, facing opposite directions)
1b Starting by raising left foot forward, cut-cut-close-pivot halfway
(take left hands, again facing opposite directions)
1b Starting by raising right foot forward, cut-cut-close-pivot one-quarter
(end facing partner; take closed hold)
1b Slide-close-leap-side-close (12&34) making a half-turn
1b Slide-close-leap-side-close (12&34) completing the turn
(drop closed position, turn a quarter to the left and take right hands)
Gilbert/Lopp
(take right hands, facing opposite directions)
2b Slide-cut-leap-hop, twice, circling completely around
(end facing partner, take closed hold)
1b Slide-close-leap-side-close (12&34) making a half-turn
1b Slide-close-leap-side-close (12&34) completing the turn
(drop closed position, turn a quarter to the left and take right hands)
I don't think I can pick a "better" version here. The "setting" and pivoting is more interesting, and presumably more faithful to Rivers' original idea. But the circling version may well have achieved more prominence, though that's relative; I don't consider either version of this a significant dance overall.
I so think it likely that the Vienna was intended to be danced by a whole roomful of dancers at once, and probably had specific music, which I've had no luck finding.
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