Since its inception, French opera has embraced dance, yet all too often operatic dancing is treated as mere decoration. Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera exposes the multiple and meaningful roles that dance has played, starting from Jean-Baptiste Lully's first opera in 1672. It counters prevailing notions in operatic historiography that dance was parenthetical and presents compelling evidence that the divertissement - present in every act of every opera - is essential to understanding the work. The book considers the operas of Lully - his lighter works as well as his tragedies - and the 46-year period between the death of Lully and the arrival of Rameau, when influences from the commedia dell'arte and other theatres began to inflect French operatic practices. It explores the intersections of musical, textual, choreographic and staging practices at a complex institution - the Académie Royale de Musique - which upheld as a fundamental aesthetic principle the integration of dance into opera. Proposes a new view of the role of dance in French opera of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries Considers the operas of Lully and his successors from a variety of perspectives and demonstrates connections between theatrical practices at the lofty Paris Opera and the low-brow theaters in Paris Readers will gain a richer understanding of Parisian theatrical life that integrates discussions of music, dance and theatrical structure in clear language Provides resources that amplify the discussions in the text, including numerous illustrations, music examples and tables Table of Contents Introduction Part I. Lully: 1. The dramaturgy of Lully's divertissements 2. Constructing the divertissement 3. Dance foundations 4. Dance practices on stage 5. Prologues 6. The lighter side of Lully Part II. The Rival Muses in the Age of Campra: 7. The muses take the stage 8. Thalie, muse of comedy 9. Thalie visits the fairs 10. The contested comic 11. Melpomène, muse of tragedy 12. Melpomène adapts 13. Terpsichore, muse of the dance 14. In the traces of Terpsichore Epilogue Appendix 1. Works performed at the Académie Royale de Musique, 1695–1732, in which the impact of the comédie italienne can be seen Appendix 2. A partial list of performances consisting of 'fragments', 1702–32 Appendix 3. The choreographies danced at the Opéra contextualized.