Of these the leader was Beauchamps, director of the Royal Academy of Dancing, composer of, and superintendent of, the Court Ballets of Louis XIV in 1661, and made _maître des ballets_ to the Academy in 1671. He danced with the king in the entertainment at Court, and though La Bruyère says of him, “_qu’il jetait les jambes en avant, et faisait un tour en l’air avant que de retomber à terre_,” showing that even in those days the public loved “sensation,” he was ordinarily a grave and dignified executant. He was one of the first experimentalists in the direction of inventing a system of Choreography, or the writing down of dances in a kind of shorthand, so that a dance once designed should never be lost, but could be read and repeated as easily as a piece of music. In this he was only following on the track of old Arbeau, but his system was different, and, if not ideal, at least it paved the way to a better. Beauchamps died in 1705. Pécourt, who was “_premier danseur et maître des ballets de l’Opéra_,” made his _début_ only in 1672. His style was what is known as “_demi-caractère_,” and he is said to have had notable effect on the ladies of his day, his amazing lightness fairly turning their heads. Blondi, a nephew of Beauchamps; Ballon, who became _maître à danser_ to Louis XV; Baudiery-Laval, a nephew of Ballon, who succeeded his uncle as dancing-master to the Royal Family and _maître des ballets_ at Court; Michel-Jean Baudiery-Laval, son of the last-named, who was not only a _maître à danser_, but is said to have been the first stage manager to have used lycopodium powder, which used to be the chief means of producing stage lightning; these were some of the lesser stars of the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries in France, and they were to be followed by Louis-Pierre Dupré, who came to be known as _Le Grand Dupré_, and who surpassed all his forerunners by the grace and the dignity of his dancing, and the _noblesse_ of his poses. He made his _début_ in 1720, was long the _premier danseur_ at the Opera, and did not retire till 1754. To hark back, however, to 1672, when there were only men to play the women’s parts. The reason for the dearth of feminine stars was quite simple. The Academy was in its infancy. There were no properly qualified professional _danseuses_, and the courtly amateurs were too courtly--and too much amateurs--to appear to advantage on the stage. The Academy came to alter all that. It revived a genuine interest in dancing as an art worthy of serious consideration; and Lulli, that inspired monkey of a dancing-musician, did the rest; for it was his opera-ballet, “Le Triomphe de L’Amour,” produced on May 16th, 1681, which brought the presence of women dancers to the boards.