In 1865, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was commissioned to model one of four monumental reliefs for the façade of Charles Garnier's Paris Opera. The allegorical group depicting the Spirit or Genius of Dance surrounded by Dancing Bacchantes and a putto was completed four years later. Carpeaux's masterpiece met with strong criticism as the dancing figures, in particular the fleshy bacchantes, were deemed far too suggestive for a public monument. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War stilled the controversy and the relief remained on the façade of the building until 1964 when it was removed to the Louvre, owing to the general deterioration of the surface.

The completed monument cost Carpeaux almost three times his payment. Consequently, in an attempt to recoup some of his extra expenses, he started marketing reductions in bronze, terracotta and marble of various segments of the completed group, the present bust being the most popular.