I am Marie-Madeleine Guimard, I was a French ballerina who dominated the Parisian stage during the reign of Louis XVI. For twenty-five years, I was the star of the Paris Opera. I made myself even more famous by my love affairs, especially by my long liaison with the Prince of Soubise. According to Edmond de Goncourt, when d'Alembert was asked why dancers like La Guimard made such prodigious fortunes, when singers did not, he responded, "It is a necessary consequence of the laws of motion".