Macabre Danse
@macabredanse.bsky.social
A research project looking at ways in which dance and the Gothic intersect, beginning with ballet.
Run by Kaja Franck, Karen Graham and Kate Harvey
Website: https://gothicballet.wordpress.com/about-danse-macabre/
Run by Kaja Franck, Karen Graham and Kate Harvey
Website: https://gothicballet.wordpress.com/about-danse-macabre/
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...
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...
October 30, 2025 at 10:26 PM
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...
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.
Pic: Phoenix Dance Theatre’s eight Company Dancers, choreographed by Jeanguy Saintus, drawing on Haitian beliefs, 2019.
October 30, 2025 at 10:26 PM
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.
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.
Pic: Pina Bausch's choreography, 1984. Performance view, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, 2017.
October 30, 2025 at 10:26 PM
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.
Pic: Pina Bausch's choreography, 1984. Performance view, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, 2017.
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.
October 30, 2025 at 7:22 AM
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.
October 30, 2025 at 7:22 AM
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.
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
October 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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.
October 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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.
October 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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.
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!
October 28, 2025 at 9:34 AM
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!
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
October 28, 2025 at 9:33 AM
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
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
October 28, 2025 at 9:31 AM
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
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...
October 28, 2025 at 9:30 AM
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...
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.
October 27, 2025 at 8:42 PM
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.
October 27, 2025 at 8:42 PM
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.
October 27, 2025 at 8:42 PM
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.
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.
October 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
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.
October 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
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.
October 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
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.
October 27, 2025 at 4:26 PM
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.
For Day 24 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse we present to you Lily Frankenstein, our Dancing Dead Girl played by Billie Piper.
October 27, 2025 at 2:51 PM
For Day 24 of #31DaysOfMacabreDanse we present to you Lily Frankenstein, our Dancing Dead Girl played by Billie Piper.
The show depicts this 'descent into madness' using dancers representing the ghostly mothers. In some scenes, the women wear pale clothing but as the show goes on, their movements become chaotic and they wear white, shroud-like dresses, until Semmelweis is surrounded by dancing women in white.
October 24, 2025 at 8:55 AM
The show depicts this 'descent into madness' using dancers representing the ghostly mothers. In some scenes, the women wear pale clothing but as the show goes on, their movements become chaotic and they wear white, shroud-like dresses, until Semmelweis is surrounded by dancing women in white.
For Day 23 of #31DaysofMacabreDanse, we return to the theme of dancing dead girls in white with 'Dr Semmelweiz' (2023) starring Mark Rylance, about Dr Ignaz Semmelweis' work to prevent postpartum infection. His work was dismissed, leading to a nervous breakdown, and he died in an asylum.
October 24, 2025 at 8:55 AM
For Day 23 of #31DaysofMacabreDanse, we return to the theme of dancing dead girls in white with 'Dr Semmelweiz' (2023) starring Mark Rylance, about Dr Ignaz Semmelweis' work to prevent postpartum infection. His work was dismissed, leading to a nervous breakdown, and he died in an asylum.
Ironically, despite stills from this scene ranking high in the image search when you google* the film, the Vampires of the title are a gang of master thieves and not, in fact, actual vampires.
*other search engines are available
*other search engines are available
October 22, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Ironically, despite stills from this scene ranking high in the image search when you google* the film, the Vampires of the title are a gang of master thieves and not, in fact, actual vampires.
*other search engines are available
*other search engines are available
Day 22 #31DaysOfMacabreDanse presents the vampire bat ballet sequence from Louis Feuillade's silent film serial Les Vampires (1913-15). In Episode Two - The Ring That Kills ballerina Marfa Koutiloff (Stacia Napierkowska) performs as a vampire bat en pointe but dies on stage.
October 22, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Day 22 #31DaysOfMacabreDanse presents the vampire bat ballet sequence from Louis Feuillade's silent film serial Les Vampires (1913-15). In Episode Two - The Ring That Kills ballerina Marfa Koutiloff (Stacia Napierkowska) performs as a vampire bat en pointe but dies on stage.
For Day 22 of #31DaysofMacbreDanse, we have the Danse Macabre crew on Romancing the Gothic (www.youtube.com/@RomancingTh...). The image is from our screening of Guy Maddin's 'Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary' (see Day 15) for Dracula in Derby conference.
October 21, 2025 at 8:43 PM
For Day 22 of #31DaysofMacbreDanse, we have the Danse Macabre crew on Romancing the Gothic (www.youtube.com/@RomancingTh...). The image is from our screening of Guy Maddin's 'Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary' (see Day 15) for Dracula in Derby conference.