Pastoral dances on the French stage in the early 18th century

Several of the extant theatrical dances by Pécour, published in the early eighteenth century, were danced by onstage "shepherds and shepherdesses". Using examples from some of these dances, I discuss Pécour's choreographic approaches to pastoral dances, and I consider pastoral contexts for these and other baroque dances in staged musical works of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.