#antimasque

A masque was a spectacle performed at court or at the manor of a member of the nobility; its purpose was to glorify the court or the particular aristocrat. The masque included various elements at different stages in its development but invariably included choreographed dances by masqued performers (…). These choreographed dances ended in the masqued dancers' "taking out" of audience members, making concrete the glorification of the court by meshing the symbolic overtones of the masque's praise with the reality of the attending court's presence.