divertissement

Dance, or suite of dances, within a ballet or opera, where the plot comes to a halt for a display of technical virtuosity, such as the character dances in the last act of Coppélia by Delibes, or the last acts of Sleeping Beauty and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

divertissement

Term mainly connected with ballet, where it means a set of varied dances with no particular plot. In music, it is a suite, particularly of arrangements or pieces based on familiar tunes, an entertaining piece of any kind, or a fantasy of a lighter sort, such as Schubert's Divertissement à la hongroise. In 18th-century French usage, a divertissement is a dance interlude, with or without songs, in a play or opera; also sometimes a short play with dances and songs.