Dancing for Distinction: Pierre Beauchamps and the Social Dynamics of Seventeenth-Century France

While the accomplishments of many seventeenth-century artists (such as the playwright and actor Molière, the composer Lully, and the landscape architect André Le Nôtre) have been recognized, the choreographer Pierre Beauchamps has received little attention. However, this thesis argues that no study of seventeenth-century French court culture is complete without an understanding of Beauchamps, not only because of his role in fashioning the identity of the Sun King, but also because his biography demonstrates that self-fashioning was not limited to aristocratic and royal circles