The Dance We Each Will Dance

It would be hard to find a deeper, darker yet more philosophically interesting short film than the “Silly Symphony” that Walt Disney produced in 1929. And while many Disney franchises were built around classic stories and fables, one might have trouble naming one more directly based on an ancient art form than “The Skeleton Dance.”Animated by Disney’s most trusted animator, Ub Iwerks, this six-minute long absurdist cartoon, is a kind of children’s version of memento mori. It features a series of skeletons dancing while playing music and was surreal and controversial enough in its own time that many theaters refused to show it. Maybe they didn’t get it or thought it was too morbid. That’s understandable since Walt Disney himself couldn’t fully articulate what was so special about it.“It’s hard to explain just what we have in mind for this series, but I feel, myself,” he said, “that it will be something unusual and should have a wide appeal.” He was absolutely right. Almost 90 years later, the film still holds up. And it has had an influential legacy, informing other Disney projects like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. There is even a shop in New Orleans Square in Disneyland called Memento Mori! But should we really expect anything different from something based on an incredibly popular but unusual ancient art form? After all, “The Skeleton Dance” is just a modern interpretation of the Danse Macabre, a beautiful, haunting, and humbling art form that dates back to the late Middle Ages. Even the humor and silliness of the Disney take is not new, for centuries artists worked to make light of the absurdity and randomness of death—how no one can escape it and how small it renders each of us. In the “Dance of Death” print we re-created for DailyStoic.com—which was inspired by a famous German engraving dated to 1635—the skeleton has an enormous grin on his face. He is laughing at you, looking you in the eye as he does so, and quite possibly asking you to laugh right back. And of course the operative word in the Dance of Death genre is dance. They’re having fun, they’re enjoying it, and their enthusiasm is perversely contagious. After all, we’re all in this ridiculous dance we call life (and death) together. There’s no question that death is ominous. Our mortality is this looming, haunting thing. No matter how good we feel or how strong we are, it turns out we’re just a pile of bones that can collapse at any moment. The question is what are you going to do about this? Are you going to cower in fear? Pull the covers over your head and hope in vain that death doesn’t find you? Or are you going to bop along with the music and have fun with it? Why be scared silly when being silly is more fun? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  "The Dance We Each Will Dance." It would be hard to find a deeper, darker, yet more philosophically interesting short film than The Silly Symphony that Walt Disney produced in 1929. And while many Disney franchises were built around classic stories and fables, one might have trouble naming one more directly based on an ancient art form than The Skeleton Dance. Animated by Disney's most trusted animator, Ubi Works, this six-minute-long absurdist cartoon is a kind of children's version of Memento Mori. It features a series of skeletons playing music and was surreal and controversial enough in its own time

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  that many theaters refused to show it. Maybe they didn't get it, or they thought it was too morbid. That's understandable, since Walt Disney himself couldn't fully articulate what was so special about it. "It's hard to explain just what we have in mind for this series," he said, "but I feel myself that it will be something unusual and should have a wide appeal." He was absolutely right. Almost 90 years later, the film still holds up. And it has had an influential legacy, informing other Disney projects, like The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. There's even a shop in New Orleans Square in Disneyland called Memento Mori. But should we really expect anything different from something

• 1:52Ryan Holiday?

  based on an incredibly popular but unusually ancient art form? After all, The Skeleton Dance is just a modern interpretation of the dance macabre, a beautiful, haunting, and humbling art form that dates back to the late Middle Ages. Even the humor and silliness of the The Disney take is not new. For centuries, artists worked to make light of the absurdity and randomness of death, how no one can escape it, and how small it renders each of us. In the Dance of Death print we recreated for DailyStoic.com, which you can get in the Daily Stoic store, which was inspired by a famous German engraving dated to 1635, the skeleton has an enormous grin on his face.

• 2:35Ryan Holiday?

  He is laughing at you, looking you in the eye as he does so, and quite possibly asking you to laugh right back. And of course, the operative word in the Dance of Death genre is "dance." They're having fun, they're enjoying it, and their enthusiasm is perversely contagious. After all, we're all in this ridiculous dance we call life and death together. There's no question that death is ominous. Our mortality is this looming, haunting thing. No matter how good we feel or how strong we are, it turns out we're just a pile of bones that can collapse at any moment. The question is, what are you going to do about this? Are you going to cower in fear?

• 3:18Ryan Holiday?

  Pull the covers over your head and hope in vain that death doesn't find you? Or are you going to bop along with the music and have fun? Why be scared silly when being silly is more fun? And I hope you'll check out the print that we have. You can go to DailyStoic.com/store. It's really cool. We had an awesome illustrator and designer base this on a print that, like we said, is almost 500 years old. And I think you'll love it. Just check it out. Go to DailyStoic.com/store. The idea is that you actually hang it at eye level in your home. So you look at it and death is staring you right in the face. He's pointing what he calls a poisoned arrow directly at you. And it's not supposed to be morbid, it's supposed to be inspirational.

• 4:04Ryan Holiday?

  It's supposed to challenge you. It's supposed to remind you that this thing is there and that you need to live accordingly. You need to live while you still can. So check it out, DailyStoic.com/store. If you like the podcast that we do here and you want to get it via email every morning, you can sign up at DailyStoic.com/email.