The Dance of Death
A 6-week, Lenten series devoted to meditations on death in art, music, poetry, literature, fashion, philosophy and theology. In this intense time of pandemic and lockdown we have all come face to face with uncertainty, finitude and mortality in quite confrontative ways. Socrates said that to “philosophize is to learn how to die.” This lent we are jumping into philosophy, theology and the arts to think about death and find some life in the face of it.
Register Now!
Life
Who is happier? The one who lives or the one who dies? This is a paraphrase of Socrates' last words. The truth is, we just don't know how to answer this question. Neither did Socrates. What we do know is that life is about learning how to die, and the attitude in which we approach death. What if living well means facing death in ways we never thought possible or pleasant?

Death
Is Death to be feared? The philosophers say no. Yet, death is something we crave to nail down precisely because there is so much fear. Our addiction to know forces us into shaping narratives about death and post death. But what if our disregard for perfect knowledge affords us a peace and creativity in life we didn't know was attainable?

Dancing
No one escapes death. It is the one certainty we are all assured and the one thing that connects us all. But what if we danced with death rather than be defeated by it? What if our ideas, fear and cheers about death gave way to a life dance so beautifully absurd that it was the real way to honor death, and maybe even cheat it?
6-Week Outline
WEEK 1 - Momento Mori: Symbolizing Death
WEEK 2 - Dissecting Death: The anatomy of finitude
WEEK 3 - Ecologies and elegies for darker days
WEEK 4 - In the Conjurer's Kitchen
WEEK 5 - It's OK to decay
WEEK 6 - Dancing with the Death of God
This Lenten season death is on offer
You’ve given up chocolate, fasted technology and social media, flirted with atheism and now it’s time to dance. Join us every Sunday in Lent for a dance with death. Each week you will get a reflective mix of art, poetry and music all focused on the biggest dance of all, the Danse Macabre. Dead philosophers will speak their eulogies and elegies and dry bones will shimmy; musicians will shake, rattle and roll their funeral hymns to the great unknowns; and artists will help us face down the Grim Reaper.
What you can expect
- The first session drops Sunday, March 6th.
- A new session will drop each Sunday, cultimating in our final session on Palm Sunday, April 10th, which will be hosted LIVE on zoom. The recording will be posted for those who can't make it.
- There are no assignments, but you can expect sessions packed with content as well as recommended reading and resources.
- Listen to our podcast on The Dance of Death here.
Barry Taylor and Maria French
