A French dance manual of the beginning of the 20th century (a copy is digitized by the American Ballroom Companion of the United States Library of Congress[1]) contains the following description by a contemporary witness: I know exactly what I am talking about when I speak of the Russian origin of the Two-step waltz, as my father was the second person to dance it in Paris in 1839-- I say "the second person" intentionally, for the first was one of his students.
Our baron had to go one evening to a great ball given by the Count Mole, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and would have to dance the waltz with some charming Moscow ladies.
From that moment onward, the old three-beat waltz was but little honored in the salons; only the public balls kept it on; but, to follow the example above, the habitués of La Chaumière created a second, simplified kind of two-step waltz, contenting themselves with jumping sometimes on one foot, sometimes on the other, without paying much attention to the music.
The prince of Galitzine, the baron and the count of Damas, and the marquis de La Baume were the first two-beat waltzers in Paris.
The day after the ball at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they danced it at the home of Count Tanneguy Duchattel, Minister of the Interior.