Making a Night of it: Dancing in the Streets of Paris during the Royal Entry of 26 August 1660

Public celebrations and street performances were central to the social and cultural life of early modern Paris, shaping both the city’s identity and its communal rhythms. These events ranged from grand royal festivals to everyday street entertainments, and they involved a wide spectrum of Parisian society, blending elite and popular traditions. Major celebrations—such as royal entries, dynastic marriages, and diplomatic ceremonies—transformed the city with temporary architecture, fireworks, and elaborate processions. These festivals aimed to create an ideal celebratory city in which night was occasionally turned into day. Yet their realization was often challenged by practical constraints, especially after nightfall, in an era before public street lighting. This paper examines the royal entry of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Spain on 26 August 1660, highlighting the dances and ballets performed in the streets and showing that the contemporary notion of “fireworks” differed markedly from our understanding today.

Hanna Walsdorf received her Ph.D. in Musicology and Dance Studies in 2009 from the University of Salzburg (Austria) and completed her habilitation (Dr. habil.) at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig in 2022. From 2009–2013, Hanna was a postdoctoral research fellow in Musicology at Heidelberg University (Germany). She was awarded the Tanzwissenschaftspreis NRW in 2011. From 2014 to 2020, she directed the Emmy Noether Research Group Ritual Design for the Ballet Stage (1650–1760), granted by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In 2020–2021, she was a guest lecturer at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, and at the University of Salzburg. In autumn 2021 she was appointed Assistant Professor for Musicology at the University of Basel (Switzerland) where she is now based. In 2023, she was awarded an SNSF Advanced Grant for the project The Night Side of Music (NightMuse, 2024–2029).