long been a point of disagreement among dance historians. Gaston Vuillier forwarded Beauchamp as the missing member, while Régine Astier (Kunzel) unabashedly claimed it was Henri Prévost. Both were wrong. The original document signed by King Louis XIV was preserved in the French National Archives, and upon its close inspection in 1997 by scholar Maureen Needham, the thirteenth name was revealed to be “Molière.” Not to be confused with Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière (1622–73), the famous playwright of King Louis’ reign responsible for ballets such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670), the Molière mentioned in the text is accompanied by “La Jeune” translated into English as “the young” or “the younger.” Given Poquelin was never known by such a title, it indicates “Molière” is rather the courtly spelling of “Mollier” as in Louis de Mollier (1615–88) an acclaimed dancer and musician of the court. Of course, Louis de Mollier is older than Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière, however historical records (such as pg.103 of the Mercure Galant, July 1677) show Louis de Mollier was commonly known as “le petit Molière,” likely due to his waning popularity in comparison Poquelin.[8] It is thus feasible that “Molière La Jeune” is equivalent to “Molière le petit.” Dance scholar Rose Pruiksma offers yet another possibility. Citing the gender of the name used in the official edict: “La” Jeune (female) rather than “Le” Jeune (male), the mysterious deletion of the name in all official court documents, and the definitive lack of youth in Louis de Mollier by 1661 (he would be forty-six), Pruiksma proffers the daring hypothesis that “Molière La Jeune” is perhaps Marie Blanche Mollier (1644-1733), the daughter of “Molière le petit.” In her own right, Marie Mollier was an accomplished dancer of ballets de cour and was no stranger to the stage of Louis XIV by the time of the Académie's establishment. As Pruiskma indicates, the addition of a female dancing master in the Académie provides a compelling reason for the thirteenth name to be wiped from official court documentation, and would explain the development of female dancers in Le Triomphe de l’amour at the Paris Opéra in 1681. Of course, while the name “Molière La Jeune” indicates youthfulness, Marie Mollier's age, only seventeen in 1661, makes her being the 13th “senior” académiste still highly contested. The Saint-Julien Conflict The dance academy's members (académistes) formed part of the king's entourage and court and were, for the most