De Lafontaine

De Lafontaine (or Mademoiselle De Lafontaine) (1655–1738) was a French ballerina and the first professional female dancer at the Paris Opéra. Together with Jean-Baptiste Lully and others, De Lafontaine contributed to the development of Opera ballet. In 1681, she danced in Le Triomphe de l'amour, one of Lully's early ballets. Until then, female parts in ballet had been danced by men.^[1]

De Lafontaine went on to be the leading ballerina in at least 18 other productions at the Paris Opera between 1681 and 1693 including Persée, Amadis, Didon and Le Temple de la Paix.^[1][2]

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