History Main / TheDeadCanDance

But now, we dance this [[TitleDrop grim fandango]]\\

*** Music/AvengedSevenfold's "Dancing Dead" describes a similar scene. Interestingly, on the same album, they cover an Music/IronMaiden song ("Flash of the Blade"), and [[FanNickname A7X]] is also very fond of academic, literary, and biblical references.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* The videos ''RIP'' and ''MEOW'' by WebAnimation/{{Cyriak}}. The former features an entire graveyard of skeletons reanimating and dancing, including a disco rave, while the latter is a ZombieApocalypse in an otherwise cutesy city of cartoon cats where the undead dance to the background music (when they're not busy massacring the living, at least).

%%[[folder:Web Original]]

[[folder:Other]]
* The musical piece by Saint-Saëns mentioned above is based on a poem by Henri Cazalis which was in turn based on an old French superstition that said that Death appears at midnight on Hallowe'en and calls forth the dead to dance while he plays the fiddle until the break of dawn.
* Any ballet that features dead characters by default, like ''Giselle'' and ''Dracula''. (Yes, there's been a ballet based on Dracula. Several, in fact.)
[[/folder]]

%%[[folder:Real Life]]
%%[[/folder]]

* In ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', a lot of souls spend most of their time partying and/or dancing. Gretchen explains that they mostly it to avoid going insane from due to their GhostAmnesia.

* The theme song for ''Manga/HakabaKitaro'' talks about ghosts dancing.

* In ''VideoGame/Skylanders: Giants'', Cynder’s Heroic Challenge is to reunite a bunch of zombies with their heads so they can have a dance party. When they do, the booming and normally intimidating announcer cheers them on.

* The videos ''RIP'' and ''MEOW'' by [[WebAnimation/Cyriak]]. The former features an entire graveyard of skeleton reanimating and dancing, including a disco rave, while the latter is a ZombieApocalypse in an otherwise cutesy city of cartoon cats where the undead dance to the background music (when they're not busy massacring the living, at least).

%%[[folder:Web Animation]]

%%[[folder:Web Original]]
%%[[/folder]]

** There's also a short story set in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' world called ''Totentanz'', in which a [[OurLichesAreDifferent Liche]] ( one of the Nine Lords of Nagash) has a wager with an Arabyan vizier as to who dances better, a living human (performing the Dance of Seven Veils), or the chosen [[UnDead wights]] of the Liche who dance to a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamade chamade]], and all join in...

* In ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'', you get a hint for a future puzzle by watching your parents' skeletons dance while singing "Dem Bones" during a concussed hallucination.

* [[WebAnimation/{{Hololive}} Mori Calliope's]] music awakens a dead corpse already buried in the ground in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5VxUvL_uBo "The Grim Reaper Is A Live-Streamer's"]] MV, whose hand arises out of it's grave just to jam out. She's heavily implied to be none other than [[FriendlyZombie Kureji Ollie]] of the Indonesian branch of Hololive, who's been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o299fL7-ov0 known to twerk on occasion]]. Her fans, Dead Beats, in general, are represented as reanimated skeletons, who naturally "dance anyway, 'cause it's human nature".

* [[WebAnimation/{{Hololive}} Mori Calliope's]] music awakens a dead corpse already buried in the ground in "The Grim Reaper Is A Live-Streamer's" MV, whose hand arises out of it's grave just to jam out. She's heavily implied to be none other than [[FriendlyZombie Kureji Ollie]] of the Indonesian branch of Hololive, who's been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o299fL7-ov0 known to twerk on occasion]]. Her fans, Dead Beats, in general, are represented as reanimated skeletons, who naturally "dance anyway, 'cause it's human nature".

* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVI'' you can enter the Underworld and play a bone xylophone to make all of the demons dance, including some skeletons doing a Rockette/line dance thing! See it in all its glory [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkP5OtN0aCw here]]!

* Appears, naturally, in ''Film/TheSeventhSeal''.

** His later song "[[Music/MichaelJacksonsGhosts Ghosts]]" pulls it off as well, though through a well less known degree.

* Music/{{Voltaire}}'s "Day of the Dead". It's a lively tune about someone visiting Mexico during el Día de los Muertos (November 1, or the Day of the Dead/All Souls' Day), with expected results.

* ''[[Music/MichaelJacksonsThriller]]'' is probably the most famous example in music.
** "Ghost" pulls it off as well, though through a well less known degree.

* "[[Music/MichaelJackson Thriller]]" is probably the most famous example in music.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG1NrQYXjLU Billy Idol is the all-dancing King of the Apocalypse]].

May or may not be related to the band Music/DeadCanDance, and has nothing to do with DeaderThanDisco. See also MonsterMash, SkeletalMusician, MummiesAtTheDinnerTable and ILoveTheDead. If the dead in question are zombies, then there's a good chance of them performing a MichaelJacksonsThrillerParody. May also involve XylophonesForWalkingBones or CreepyBallet.

* In VideoGame/RedDeadRedemptionUndeadNightmare you will find Seth (A crazed fortune hunter who likes talking to corpses) having a full on party with the undead, as he is one of the few if any characters whom the zombie do not harm.