What is the Danse Macabre?
The Danse Macabre, or Dance of Death, is an artistic theme, particularly in medieval art, in which a personified Death collects people from all walks of life. The people are typically shown as skeletons or corpses in a procession, usually dancing. Alternatively, the dance may be circular in formation, and the dancers may appear in their living form with skeletons as dance partners. The Danse Macabre, sobering but often darkly comic, makes the point that we are all equal in the grave. The theme of the Danse Macabre has been used since the 15th century in paintings, theatre, music, literature, and later in film.
