Abstract.This dissertation retraces the history of the feminization of a professional category of “dance artists” at the Paris Opera that included the most highly qualified dance professionals of both genders (soloists and ballet masters) who were working within a system where the production of ballet performances relied on a culture of celebrity. Once having demonstrated that the feminization of the professional corps of dancers at the Opera resulted from a statistical dynamic that emerged in the 18th century, I study the Paris-based career trajectory of the female dancer Marie Taglioni (1827-1837) in order to demonstrate that female celebrity was the fruit of social reproduction that served to reify an economic model of assessing artistic value. This female celebrity culture meant that female ballet stars extended their professional responsibility to include the commercial success of the choreographic works they performed, and this resulted in their serving as the objects of discourse and as subjects of commercial appropriations valorising their status as performers. Yet, a close examination of the career path of the ballet master Jean Coralli (1831-1850) reveals to what extent any professional employment related to the composition of ballets still remained a masculine affair. Our study of male auctoriality over ballet composition, combined with our historical survey of the feminisation of the ballet profession in the early 19th century, reveals what made it possible for a certain number of female dancers, notably Fanny Cerrito and Marie Taglioni, to emerge as choreographers despite the institutional constraints of the Paris Opera.