Celebration Of The Dance

Jean-Baptiste Lully was a French composer, conductor, and dancer who worked in the court of Louis the XIV. Despite his venerable status as an artist, Lully is perhaps best known for his death: He struck himself in the foot with a long conducting staff (this was before conductors waived batons, and instead would keep the orchestra in time by banging a large staff on the floor) and subsequently died of the infected wound.