DANCE OF DEATH

The so called Dance of Death of Verges is the only surviving trace in Europe of the Medieval Danse Macabre. The survival can be linked to the incorporation of the dance into the Way of the Cross procession during the Baroque period. It is performed at midnight in the night from Maundy Thursday to Good Friday and represents a true staged Passion wandering through the streets and squares of Verges. The adaptation of the Passion procession established the cross-shaped structure of the dance, unlike the medieval Danse Macabre which was in a row or circle. It is a cross that moves forward during the nocturnal procession and consists of five dancers wearing black tights, painted with a white skeleton and wearing masks like a skull. The group is headed by the Guadaña (scythe), a character provided with this agricultural instrument who makes a complete turn with his body with every step, taking in all space of his setting and as the personification of death, carrying out the symbolic gesture of scything with the blade of the instrument towards the entire humanity, here embodied by the spectators situated in the street sides where the dance goes through. He is followed by the Bandera, a dancer who carries a black banner with a painted skull and the legends “Nemini parco” (Death forgives no-one) and “Lo temps es breu” (Life can be short). On both sides of this axial figure, forming the short arm of the cross, two children are turning, incorporating the Ashes, as they show with every step the dishes which they carry in hands and remind one of the human transience: “pulvis estis et in pulverem reverteris” (you are dust and you will return to dust). Closing the large arm of the cross the child that holds an ancient clock without hands showing with every turn a different time, implies to be prepared, as the coming of death is completely unforeseeable. A bit behind, there is a character, who was like a Nazarene before, but today it is like a hooded skeleton who leads the dry rhythm of the choreography with a drum and is escorted by two carriers with torches. The group goes with the procession or Passion play, Nazarenes or penitents, armed and walk-on of the Passion on their way trough the urban district of Verges with several stage actions (the three falls with burlesque dancing of the Jews around the pulled down cross, the coincidence of the Nazarene with Maria or with Veronica and the corresponding miracles), until the action culminates in a double end. While in the Church Square the Crucifixion and the Descent from the Cross is acted, the Danse Macabre penetrates simultaneously in the interior of the temple in order to honour the Holy of Holies. The actors accentuate their steps on the aisle, bursting at the seams, until they arrive to the tabernacle of the Chapel where the skeletons make a deep-felt reverence. The Death, after having seized the humans, and paraphrasing the punishment of Christ, announces its imminent victory with the redeeming resurrection.

Francesc Massip Bonet
University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona