"For children there have been accepted La Veta and the Russian Militaire, the latter a semi-drill and march step, combining simple and graceful poses for the little ones."
-- Marie Petravsky, "New Fads in Dances", The Sunday Morning Call (Lincoln, Nebraska). Sunday, October 25, 1896, p. 5.
The accepting organization referred to was The Western Association and Normal School of Masters of Dancing, which also accepted a number of dances for adults that year. The newspaper article was timed to the start of the new dancing season in New York, but on the sheet music it is noted that the dance was adopted on June 11, 1896, in Toledo, Ohio. It is also claimed, apparently inaccurately, that "This Dance was the only Dance adopted out of ten others presented."
The choreographer of the dance was John A. Mahler, brother of the much better-known St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler. Both brothers taught children; another of John Mahler's dances, the Two and a Half Step, was inscribed to "the Young Ladies of the Mary Institute and Hosmer Hall", two St. Louis schools. There is no indication on the sheet music that it was meant for children, which makes one wonder how many of the other simple sequence dances of the period might also have been meant for the younger set!
Petravsky's article also includes a comment that the music of the Russian Militaire "is captivating and its figures, highly original, introduce a series of charming movements." While some puffery is to be expected, this is enough to make one wonder whether the dance described on the sheet music is the same dance! The figures are not highly original, I do not personally find them excessively charming, and the music, while pleasant, is not all that captivating. Nor do I find the dance anything like a "a semi-drill and march step".
The music is in 3/4 time in redowa/mazurka style. The figures are quite simple, though there is one question of step interpretation. To begin, both dancers take crossed hands (right in right, left in left), presumably in front, and both start with the right foot. As a practical matter, it's slightly easier if the left hands are above the right hands.
Russian Militaire (16 bars)
1b Slide right foot forward (bending body to right), and hop on right foot twice
1b Repeat with left foot, bending body to left
1b Repeat with right foot
1b Stamp three times, left-right-left
On the third stamp, face each other and salute by placing the left index finger at the side of the left eye. Retain right hands, continue turning to face against line of dance and rejoin left hands.
4b Repeat first four bars, traveling against line of dance
Immediately after the third stamp and index-finger "salute", the dancers must take closed ballroom position. The young gentleman should make the third stamp without weight.
8b Turning "three steps", four complete turns. (see note below)
After the final turn, the dancers need to separate slightly and shift back to crossed-hand position, and the young gentleman must free the right foot to restart the dance.
Reconstruction and Performance Notes
The major question for the Russian Militaire is what, exactly, the "three steps" consisted of. The instructions give it as "Three steps, [Trois Temps]", but it was clearly not the valse à trois temps, as they go on to explain it as "slide three steps to sides with left foot, and then with the right foot". Turning is not actually mentioned; I am extrapolating from the usual pattern of such sequences (along line of dance, against line of dance, turning), the taking of closed position, and the start of this section on the left foot.
One could interpret "three steps to sides" as either literally three steps, slide-close-slide, resembling a two-step but as three distinct movements rather than a step and a chassé, or conceivably as three "steps" of a slide and two chassé steps, each consisting of close-step, as in the Galop à Trois Pas. The latter would give a rhythm of 1&2&3. There does not seem to have been any universally accepted basic "three step" -- dances with that in the title use a variety of steps and rhythms. Some "three step" dances are not even in 3/4 time. My preference is for the step-close-step movement with the simple 1-2-3 rhythm, as in the dance La Russe, which American dancing master G. W. Lopp classified as a three step in La Danse (Paris, 1903). The music does not consistently support any other rhythm, and the simplicity seems suited to the rest of the dance.
It is not clear whether the bending of the body toward the lead foot continues during the three step, but it doesn't hurt if the dance is being done at a reasonable tempo.
There is no position specified for the trailing foot during the hops, but I would expect it to be extended and raised in fourth behind, skater-style.
I have no idea what the significance of the left finger beside the left eye gesture is; I don't recall ever seeing it before. I suppose that is the "simple and graceful pose" of the headline.
Only the young gentlemen need to do changes of foot in this dance, going into and out of the turning three step. For the first change, a simple stamp without weight does it. The second change, during the switch from closed to crossed-hand position, is a bit trickier, but if the gentleman lets the lady complete her turn while only turning about a quarter himself (to face line of dance) and releasing his right arm early enough to allow her to some extra pivot (she must make a three-quarter turn to face line of dance), it's not hard to do the final step of the right foot as a touch rather than a step. Getting the arms disentangled from waltz position and into crossed-hands in time is actually harder!
I've made a small clip of the first part of the music played at 130 beats per minute, which is a bit brisk for the Tempo moderato marked on the music but a bit slower than the 144 beats per minute which contemporaries such as Lopp and Gilbert suggested for similar dances. Given the shifts in hold, I don't think it ought to be faster than is needed to make the hops at the beginning feel lively rather than labored.
The original sheet music is available online at the Goucher College Digital Library. In the absence of musicians to play it, a recording of a 3/4 piece accented as a redowa or mazurka would be most appropriate.
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