iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Announcing: ‘Dancing with the Derby Dracula’ Funded by the AHRC IAA, we are working with with the Derby Dracula to deliver a series of dance workshops for the public and local dancers to create a performance inspired by Derby’s vampiric history.

021

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

The Danse Macabre Crew at the International Gothic Association conference @universityofhull. Fresh from our amazing dance session 'Do the Robot'.

An image of the members of Macabre Danse dressed in gothic outfits.

010

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

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

media.tenor.com

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 .

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

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

youtu.be

Lady Gaga - The Dead Dance (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by LadyGagaVEVO

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

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...

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

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.

120

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

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 youtu.be/kJ4uowripdw?...

youtu.be

The Dying Swan – Natalia Osipova (The Royal Ballet)

YouTube video by Royal Ballet and Opera

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

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.”

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

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

youtu.be

Anna Pavlova as The Swan

YouTube video by Amy Growcott

110

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

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.

110

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

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

youtu.be

The Haunted Mansion - HOW IT WORKS

YouTube video by Amusement Labs

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

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

youtu.be

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

YouTube video by 4K WDW

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

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

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

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

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

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.

120

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

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!

Abigail dancing out of a cage in her bloody white tutu

130

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

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

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

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

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

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

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

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...

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

130

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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?...

youtu.be

Christopher Bruce's Ghost Dances - Queensland Ballet's Raw 2017

YouTube video by Queensland Ballet

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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

youtu.be

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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

120

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

We're playing catch up at Danse Macabre HQ after a hectic pre-Halloweek weekend. Bear with us as we bring you up to speed in all things #31DaysOfMacabreDanse

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

This builds on pre-existing symbolism in ballet blanc (see: Day 1, Day 3 and Day 7 of #31DaysofMacabreDanse). Both movement and clothing reinforce an aesthetic of grief, loss and haunting dread of wasted lives. You can find the cast talking about the show here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tclP....

youtube.com

Dr. Semmelweis | Mark Rylance and West End cast interviews

YouTube video by WhatsOnStage

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

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.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Thanks to Ambre Emory-Maier for the reminder of this Dancing Dead Girl.

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

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

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

The sequence starts just before the 4 minute mark. Napierkowska's uncanny movement is a mixture of technique, costuming and shooting the action in reverse. The by now well established technique adds to the eerie quality of the Vampire bat.O youtu.be/bJZKIgCppyw?...

youtu.be

Louis Feuillade Les Vampires 2 La bague qui tue 1915

YouTube video by Cinéma de minuit

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

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.

120

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Join our Dancing Dead Girls revisiting their work for @igagoths.bsky.social conference in 2022. You can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIY8...

youtube.com

Gothic Dance with Kaja Franck, Karen Graham and Kate Harvey

YouTube video by Romancing the Gothic

010

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

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.

101

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

The novel had significant artistic influence. It was adapated in 1978 by Ronald Chase, and can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=stE-....

youtube.com

Bruges La Morte (1978)

YouTube video by Anthoney Hart

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

On a visit to the opera, he sees a dancer who reminds him of his dead wife. Overcome with grief, desire and madness, he wanders the streets of Bruges. His attempts to woo the dancer lead to tragedy when she cannot live up to the memories of his dead wife. Image: Photograph from the original text.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

A belated day 20 of #31DaysofMacabreDanse with the classic novel of death, a young woman and dance: 'Bruges-la-Morte' (1892) by Georges Rodenbach. The narrative follows a widower haunted by his dead wife, and still living amongst her relics. Image: Fernand Khnopff's cover design, 1892.

111

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

The fact that her top reads DEATH shpuld have clued him (and us) in. This is a Dancing Dead Girl after all and she transforms. Her choreo switches up to match her new flashdance-meets-vampire appearance, with some bed-ography reminiscent of Fuseli's Nightmare.

000

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

It's pure 80's costuming and choreography. Isolations, hip thrusts, and floor work. The curtains get in on the action at one point, and the lyrics of the chorus inspire a repeated motif. It's far from the lap dance the audience were anticipating, but boyfriend is clearly happy.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

The couple, in matching Creper battle vests, sneak upstairs and the girl handcuffs her boyfriend to her single bed and puts a Creeper cassette tape on the player. She proceeds to dance for him, silhouetted by her bedroom window.

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Introduced by band memeber Hannah Greenwood, in greyscale makeup holding a Jack O'Lantern, we are warned that, as a young girl and her boyfriend that she sneaks into the home, and that "in this neighbourhood the line between innocence and evil is paper thin".

100

Macabre Danse @macabredanse.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Their upcoming release, Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death is a sequel to their 2023 album Sanguivore. There are Dancing Dead Gilrs galore, but it's the first single from the new album Prey for the Night that caught our eyes at Danse Macabre HQ.

100