born 1707
died July 27, 1756, Paris, Fr.
French dancer and choreographer.
She made her debut at the Paris Opéra in 1721. In London and Paris she performed in a new expressive, dramatic style that later was championed as the ballet d'action by Jean-Georges Noverre . With Pygmalion (1734) she became the first woman to choreograph a ballet in which she danced and also the first to discard the traditional restrictive costume for a muslin dress. Her rivalry with Marie Camargo led her to appear more frequently in London, where she danced in several of George Frideric Handel 's opera ballets. She retired from the Opéra in 1740.