Macabre Danse

a black and white photo of a woman in a dress dancing in front of a group of people . ALT: a black and white photo of a woman in a dress dancing in front of a group of people .

Written for Tim Burton's Wednesday (Series 2), Gaga leans in to the uncanny valley of the doll. Her make-up and movement exaggerate the desire of the male gaze, but at the exploitation of feminine expression. Death should repulse but instead appeals to the masculine

YouTube video by LadyGagaVEVO Lady Gaga - The Dead Dance (Official Music Video)

Its the grand finale. Our Dancing Dead Girl for Day 31 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse is of course Lady Gaga youtu.be/xGaZBfJOyAc?...

He wrote in his biography that he was inspired by a vision of pagan rite which ended in sacrifice.
Pic: Joffrey Ballet, 1987. This verion drew on Nicholas Roerich's original costumes. You can find a link to excerpts of the Joffrey Ballet version here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo4s...

The girl, the Chosen One, dances to her death in the final Sacrifical Dance section. Stravinsky's masterpiece drove audiences to near riots when it premiered.
Pic: Phoenix Dance Theatre’s eight Company Dancers, choreographed by Jeanguy Saintus, drawing on Haitian beliefs, 2019.

Day 30 of #31DaysofDanseMacabre and today's dancing dead girl is the sacrifical maiden from Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rites of Spring' (1913).
Pic: Pina Bausch's choreography, 1984. Performance view, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, 2017.

YouTube video by Royal Ballet and Opera The Dying Swan – Natalia Osipova (The Royal Ballet)

Modern versions tend to combine this artistic expression with more technical choreography, but this performance by Ossipova for The Royal Ballet Live showcases Fokine's original vision
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It is not a ballet preoccupied with recreating the movment of a swan, it is instead an extended meditation on death and dying. Reportedly when Anna Pavlova was lying on her deathbed, her last words were, “get my Swan costume ready.”

YouTube video by Amy Growcott Anna Pavlova as The Swan

The original choreography emphasised artistic expression over technical complexity.
youtu.be/tkFSBkl9mmo?...

Originally tited The Swan, it was choreographed for Anna Pavlova by Mikhail Fokine. Set to to Camille Saint-Saëns's Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des animaux that follows the last moments of a dying swan.

Day 29 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse and our Dancing Dead Girl takes the form of a swan. Not, as you might expectation, Odette from Swan Lake but the Dying Swan.

YouTube video by Amusement Labs The Haunted Mansion - HOW IT WORKS

If you'd like to know how these Dancing Dead Girls (and Boys) work, you can check out this explanation
youtu.be/Dx-_SYsjwJk?...

YouTube video by 4K WDW Mickey's Boo to You Halloween Parade 2025 Full Show in 4K | Magic Kingdom Walt Disney World Florida

More recently, the Waltzing Dead have escaped their abode and joined Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party parade. youtu.be/SIKfnZbXZbs?...

The guests in their Doom Buggies look down on the ghostly birthday party as the spirits dance through the furniture and walls to the sound of the organ, played by another ghost

The Waltzing Dead are part of the biggest practical effect in the Haunted Mansion attraction and its counterparts at Disney parks across the world.

Welcome, foolish mortals to day 28 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse where we invite you to watch the Waltzing Dead, also knows as the dancing ghosts from the ballroom in the Haunted Mansion.

Abigail dancing out of a cage in her bloody white tutu

The meta nods to the vampire genre all come together with the father's reveal, and this is one to add to the Halloween watchlists!

Kathryn Newton as Sammy after having been turned into a vampire, dancing in thrall like a marionette whilst covered in blood and grime

The second dancing dead girl featured in the film is up and coming Scream Queen Kathryn Newton, who is bitten and turned, and dances like a marionette whilst under Abigail's thrall, before meeting her grisly final end

Abigail dancing with delight in a bloodied white tutu and small feather headpiece

This is a child vampire that hunts them down one by one inside the hostage house. Abigail is played by Alisha Weir, fresh off playing Matilda, and dances with gruesome delight throughout the movie

Alisha Weir dancing mid turn as Abigail wearing a blood splattered white tutu

Day 27 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse and children can be such monsters. Abigail (2024) is a reimagining of Universal's Dracula's Daughter and sees a group of criminals recruiting to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy businessman. However, said child is no ordinary ballerina...

YouTube video by Queensland Ballet Christopher Bruce's Ghost Dances - Queensland Ballet's Raw 2017

Bruce created the ballet "for the innocent people of South America, who from the time of the Spanish Conquests have been continuously devastated by political oppression."

youtu.be/fgh13vsc1jU?...

Ghost Dances is a one-act dance work in which three skeletal Ghost Dancers await a group of Dead who will re-enact moments from their lives before passing on. The dishevelled appearance of the Dead suggests ordinary people who have been through trauma.

The Dead are five women and three men who throughout the work experience contrasting forms of death.

Day 26 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse presents the Dancing Dead (Girls) of Christopher Bruce’s 1981 Ghost Dances. It tells stories of love and compassion, as death – in the form of the ‘ghost dancers’ – interrupts the daily lives of a series of ordinary people.

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty New Adventures' innovative dance performance recorded live on stage. Set in a world of fairies and vampires, the timeless tale of good v evil is turned upside down.

Those in the UK can watch the whole ballet on BBC iplayer.

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001ty2k

Her dancing is at times sluggish, at others frantic and very Giselle like in the staging and choreography. She does eventually succumb to the effects of the Rose and collapse.

The score crescendos and the audience applauds. This is the end of Aurora's part for now, we think. But Bourne surprises us and has Aurora revive and continue to dance is a semi-conscious state.

Our attention for today is focused on the section after Aurora's finger is pricked by, not a spindle in this adaptation but the thorn from a rose.

A semi-dead, semi-dancing girl for Day 25 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse as we visit one (of many) options from Matthew Bourne's reimagined contemporary ballets in the form of Aurora from Sleeping Beauty: A Gothic Romance.

Brónagh Croft is resurrected by Victor Frankenstein with the intention of her becoming the Bride for his Creature. In season 3 Lily/Brónagh waltzes in a Gothic white dress which trails blood a sign of further violence.
#31DaysOfMacabreDanse
youtu.be/-I6HjBHQoTM

For Day 24 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse we present to you Lily Frankenstein, our Dancing Dead Girl played by Billie Piper.