dance of death

American  

noun

1. a symbolic dance in which Death, represented as a skeleton, leads people or skeletons to their grave.

2. a representation of this theme in art.

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dance of death British  

noun

1. Also called (French): danse macabre.  a pictorial, literary, or musical representation, current esp in the Middle Ages, of a dance in which living people, in order of social precedence, are led off to their graves, by a personification of death

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Etymology

Origin of dance of death

First recorded in 1470–80

Example Sentences

But the real dance of death in Tennessee Williams’s play isn’t between the two of them: It’s between Blanche and her sister, Stella.

From The Wall Street Journal

Working with choreographer David Neumann, Baumbach looked at ceremonial dances of death from around the world for inspiration.

From Los Angeles Times

“It is a dance of death with your opponent,” he says.

From Literature

Where the production gets more specific is in its departures from the libretto: its absence of caricature and villainy, its climactic dance of death instead a scene of stillness and life continuing in agony.

From New York Times

The bones formed patterns, like skeletal contortionists tumbling together, curling to protect the precious stones—a dance of death and riches.

From Literature