Latest News

At long last, after a year and a half of Irvin learning choreography from Disney Channel Original Movies for want of a dance troupe, the Dancing Death Eaters are dusting the cobwebs off dance shoes and starting up again! (And yes, this means we are actively recruiting!)

There's not much news to report as of yet, but Irvin was recently down in Atlanta, GA to bring Wizard Dance at Cons to CONjuration 2021. While down there, he even got to finally perform Dark Mark Calling live with the Blibbering Humdingers singing - a collaboration a decade in the making!

Did we do something with our hair? Or maybe get our Dark Marks touched up? Nope, it's a new look for our website! Google Sites is forcing all their sites to update to the new interface... and while we miss our old color scheme, by and large it seems like a good look!

The biggest news: the music video for My Obsession is live on YouTube now! We're so incredibly proud of this one; it's many Death Eaters' favorite number in the repertoire.

The latest addition to our repertoire is a somewhat unorthodox one: the Jingle Bell Rock routine from "Mean Girls." We learned it as a holiday surprise from Irvin to the Death Eaters, but it ended up being so much fun that we performed it at Irvin's birthday party, and it appears to be a thing now.

Back in January, there was also a very momentous occasion in DDE history: the DDEs performed without Irvin for the first time! This had never happened in 10+ years. But the current troupe is of a caliber where Irvin trusted Julia, Sheila, and Scott to perform by themselves; by all accounts, they did a great job!

We were working on a difficult new DDE routine before coronavirus: it was murder on our bodies, but we were halfway done when rehearsals ground to a halt. We'll just have to pick it back up when the world returns to a semblance of normal.

For those of you stuck at home like us, Irvin filmed a video tutorial to our Rodolphus routine: this can be found at Alohomora's Patreon.

At long last, we finally have a proper Picture Gallery on this website! There, you can see highlights from the last two years of DDEs. Eventually, we'll go back through hard drives and do the same for the first era.

Lastly, there's been some tidying up and updating of our Current Roster and Former Death Eaters, a few Dance Videos added, etc.

On November 9th, the wizard rock community gathered at Avada KedavRock! 2019 for 4+ hours of wrock and wizard dance! The entire concert was recorded for posterity here: Avada KedavRock! 2019 Full Playlist

The Dancing Death Eaters performed 10 numbers in total, all of which can be found at Dance Videos or at our updated Repertoire page (with the Avada KedavRock! 2019 cast now listed alongside the others). Among the highlights, we debuted the full-cast version of My Obsession and officially inducted Rodolphus into our repertoire after its premiere in The Art of Wizard Dance this summer. After many years, we also finally got to perform The Art of Parseltongue with Hawthorn & Holly singing live!

There's been some more updates all around here, including bringing the History up to date.

The DDEs are going to take it easy for the rest of 2019, tying up loose ends and making sure everyone is up to speed on our current repertoire, before commencing work on a new dance in 2020. Since we have no big performance coming up, there is no better time to join the troupe!

A lot has happened in the evil world of dance in 2019! So much that we have been remiss in updating the website! So, here's what's happening with the Dancing Death Eaters...

The biggest news: we are throwing Avada KedavRock! 2019 on November 9th! Out of a sense of pure masochism and a love for the wizard rock community. This will be a big opportunity for the new generation of Death Eaters to perform. We have some terrific singers booked to perform, and the DDEs will be performing up to ten different routines! Including our first time performing Art of Parseltongue with Hawthorn & Holly singing live, and the debut of the full-troupe version of our new number, My Obsession! It's very exciting, and we hope to see you there!

It's also been long enough that we've updated the Current Roster and Former Death Eaters with the new generation of Death Eaters! In the latter category is Angelica, who retired from the Dark Mark at the end of the summer. But in the current roster, we have Julia II, Scott, and Maya, and the DDEs have never been better! Julia has already performed with the DDEs; Scott and Maya will be making their debuts at Avada KedavRock! 2019.

The first performance of the new DDE generation happened in July, at MISTI-Con 2019. We performed three old favorites and debuted our newest (and best!) dance, My Obsession, in a solo variant with Irvin and Julia. (Our Repertoire page has been updated accordingly.)

As mentioned in the last update, there was a lot of Wizard Dance at Cons this summer! We did a simplified version of Like a Death Eater at Leviosa 2019. At MISTI-Con 2019, there was an even more exciting development: a brand-new routine was created for Wizard Dance, which will be adapted into a DDE routine instead of the other way around. This was Rodolphus by Ashley Trix, who was enthusiastically dancing alongside everyone else at the con!

In other updates, we have filmed a music video for My Obsession! While the video needs a lot of editing and won't be ready for some time, it's sure to be glorious once Irvin has the time to sit down with Windows Movie Maker for a few days!

We're still working our way through videos from the DDEs' Halloween shoots, and our new mini-tradition is releasing videos on the last day of the month. This month, we have two videos from our 2011 Halloween, with Leeza, Sheila, and me doing a stripped down version of If You Didn't Come to Party and a really fun solo-ish version of The Art of Parseltongue.

In other news, work on My Obsession is progressing well - we're around the halfway point in the new dance. It's going to be somewhat different from all our other dances in that there are multiple roles and couplings, but none that are tied down to individual dancers (for increased flexibility down the line). Also, there are chairs in this routine!

We are also beginning to think about Wizard Dance at Cons this summer, as we will bring it to two cons: Leviosa 2019 and MISTI-Con 2019! In fact, there may even be a DDE presence at the latter...

I am thrilled to report that the revival of the Dancing Death Eaters is going better than I could have hoped, as our ranks grow with fun and enthusiastic geeks who'll become dancers. In fact, I believe we currently have more people at lessons than we've had since February 2010. We've just finished revisiting the Death Eater Tango, and even updating it a little. Later this month, we will begin work on a brand-new dance number - as voted on by Twitter, we will be dancing to My Obsession by the Parselmouths.

The revival of the DDEs has rekindled my enthusiasm for editing videos of our dancing - one of the tasks requiring endless patience that was always going to be done "later when I had time." On Halloween, I released the first four of our Halloween dance videos from 2011/2012 (which were originally being hoarded for our next DVD). Find those costumed danced on our Dance Videos page.

Much more significantly, on the last day of 2018, I completed a very important task: crafting the very first video of the DDEs' fourteenth and final dance of the First Era, Don't Wanna Be a Death Eater by the Brothers Black. This was by far the most ambitious dance routine the DDEs ever did... upon viewing the footage to edit the video, I was blown away at the difficulty of the routine. It's amazing to think we'd accomplished that. It has the core four in it, and really serves to showcase Sheila and me in the latter half when it's just us spinning like dervishes through the dance studio.

This was only performed live once, at Avada KedavRock! 2014, and so no video existed of it online until this very moment. It's an immense feeling of pride and relief to now have all fourteen of our dances immortalized for the world to see. Here's looking to lots more excitement in 2019!

Wow, has it been a hot minute. *blows dust off of dance shoes* *presses Dark Mark*

Last this site was updated, the Dancing Death Eaters were gearing up for Avada KedavRock! 2014. I meant to post lots of updates here, but it turned out that planning a wizard rock concert, prepping fourteen dance numbers, graduating college, and finding an internship was a very time-consuming affair. Regrettably, Avada KedavRock! 2014 served as a finale of sorts for the Dancing Death Eaters, who disbanded shortly afterwards as real life happened.

That was four and a half years ago. I had grandiose ambitions of making a third DVD - "Heinous Halloween," from our costumed video shoots in 2011/2012. But, obviously in retrospect, there was no urgency to do so... and it never got done. Maybe that's for the best, as goodness knows I don't need another big box of DDE stuff taking up valuable space in my closet. I also thought periodically that I should update this website - if not for its relevance, then at least for posterity. That didn't happen either... it was always something I'd do when I had free time.

As it turned out, when I did have free time, I wrote a book instead. Which, in a roundabout way, is why this digital space is getting its cobwebs removed. When the book was to be published, I wanted a performance of the DDEs at my book launch party - both because it would definitely make for a memorable moment at the party, and because I wanted one of my earlier triumphs to be a presence at my greatest triumph. But when I pressed the Dark Mark, some of the Death Eaters still stayed away, necessitating the draft of some new friends for the dance number.

Dear J.K. Rowling, at my launch party, was intended to be a reunion, an epilogue for this wonderful part of my life, and perhaps a preface to more vague plans of "I want to bring it back one day." But suddenly, I found that there was interest, and a willingness for this dance troupe to be revived. Not the usual three somewhat willing participants I used to persuade, but workable numbers of (hopefully genuinely) enthusiastic people. So, I'm just crazy enough to take another stab at it, and begin the Second Era of the Dancing Death Eaters.

So, the Dark Mark will be cast forth on Wednesday, November 7th, as we have our first proper DDE lesson in over four years. Sheila will return to the fold, and Leeza will be back in some capacity. We'll be moving to later on Wednesday evenings to accommodate members' work schedules, with hopefully the same location. If you have any interest in joining, there is literally no better time than the very beginning of a new era - you could be an "original Death Eater" years from now, showing the newbies what's what.

I think we will also have a slightly different outlook on what the DDEs work towards. In the latter half of the first era, when wizard rock concerts had dried up and there was nowhere to perform unless we hosted our own events, I began emphasizing DVDs - convinced that somehow someway they'd become a revenue stream, if only we put enough "exclusive" content on it. If I'm being honest, in this self-reflective time, I subconsciously just wanted a tangible thing I could point to that I'd created. Anyway, two moves later when I lugged boxes of DDE DVDs from one apartment to another, I've realized that we'll never make big bucks from DVDs, and we'll be better off building brand awareness online. So no more DVDs for now - no "Vol. 3: Heinous Halloween" will be produced - and (when I have free time, ha!) I'll make some of our older stuff available online. Though I think I'll keep the "Come to Party" individual character videos an exclusive for Vol. 2, since that's something only our most ardent fans will want.

Anyway, in the interest of having something online I can point people towards without shame, I've been cleaning up this website. Apart from anything else, I've gotten better at websites in the ensuing years, and want to bring this part of my online presence back up to snuff. Hence fancy new formatting for the whole endeavor.

Anyway, there's a new page, Repertoire, that goes into detail about all of our dance numbers - their history, who performed them historically, videos of it online, and color commentary. It was all well and good when this info was scattered throughout other pages when there was a handful of numbers; with fourteen, they needed to be organized in one place.

I have also cleaned up various pages that tell the story of what I've termed the First Era of DDEs - Current Roster, Former Death Eaters, and most importantly, History. Our history was being written as it happened, so it was a worthwhile exercise to go through and edit it in addition to adding the events of 2014 and onwards. There are other small updates all around, but at least now one can look through this website and it's no longer sloppy, and mostly free of out-of-date information.

I know I say this in seemingly every update I've ever posted here, but I do intend to keep this website in reasonably good shape, so I never again have to do such an epic clean-up as just happened. I hope to have lots of good news about our revitalized dance troupe relatively soon.

Evilly yours,

Irvin, the once and future Dark Lord of the Dance

While this site has lain fallow for a few months, the Dancing Death Eaters have been puttering away. We are very nearly done with our new dance - one of our most impressive in the Dark Lord's opinion, and doubtlessly our most physically taxing. After a recruitment period, we proudly welcomed a new Death Eater into the fold: Katy. In light of all that's gone on, I have updated the Current Roster and Former Death Eaters pages with the sad realization that Rosie is likely gone for good. I also updated our History to bring us up-to-date through 2013.

Exciting things are in the works! A second Avada KedavRock! is being planned. Look for much more activity here in the coming months.

Sept 14: The DDEs are back from summer hiatus, and ready to dance! This Friday, September 20th, we will hopefully welcome new recruits - so the time to join is now! After bringing the newbies up to speed, work will resume on our new routine. Avada KedavRock! will not be returning this fall, but we will attempt to have on next spring, and in the meantime will work hard on our dancing.

Aug 6: Things are fairly quiet with the DDEs at the moment. We are on summer hiatus, and will return to dance in September to finish work on our fourteenth dance number. Hopefully we'll also get some new recruits! If you want to join, now is the time! There is talk of a second Avada KedavRock! on the horizon, though that will depend on how crazy the Dark Lord's senior year of college is.

In the meantime, there have been some updates around the site. I brought the History page up-to-date on the last year and a half, and created a page for Wizard Dance at Cons showcasing the DDEs' teachings from MISTI-Con 2013.

It's been a rather busy time for the Dancing Death Eaters, so I've not been able to update this site as frequently as I wanted. However, we have a new dance done, and an accompanying music video - for Celestial Warmbottom's Dear J.K. Rowling. The dance pays homage to all twelve of the preceding dances by having a significant move from each of them. Try to figure out all twelve, and expect the "answer key" video on our upcoming third DVD! For this dance, the Dark Lady agreed to return for one night only to shoot the video - in drag, no less! She cosplays Grindelwald, with the Dark Lord as Dumbledore. Mary, Sheila, and Rosie cosplay Madam Pomfrey, Madam Rosmerta, and McGonagall respectively. And there is even a cameo from Celestial Warmbottom herself! There are pictures up on our Picture Gallery, which is still very much a work in progress.

In less happy news, David has left behind his Death Eater days (Dear JKR was originally supposed to be his starring dance, and Leeza had to step in at the last minute). So now the current roster consists of solely the Dark Lord, Mary, Sheila, and Rosie. Both the Current Roster and the Former Death Eaters pages have been updated in light of all the recent changes.

The Dancing Death Eaters are hard at work on a new routine, for our fourteenth dance. We are just past the halfway mark, and it is going very well. Unfortunately, the Dancing Death Eaters will be taking a six-week hiatus in March and April, so it will be a long time before the dance is completed. There won't be many updates on this site throughout the next two or three months, but know that we are hard at work on a fantastic new dance. This one won't be as much about the story and costumes, the gimmicks and lifts... just about good old-fashioned dancing.

At long last, all the videos from Avada KedavRock! 2012 are uploaded to YouTube! This includes having our four new dances available for viewing for the very first time: "Stronger Than Imperio," "Dark Mark Calling," "Oliver Wood," and "Oh, the Goblins and the Wizards Should Be Friends" (this last one performed live). There are also videos of us performing many old favorites.

Since there are now so many links, the Dance Videos page has been reorganized by year, and includes video of all twelve of our dances. And hopefully, soon there will be a thirteenth!

There is a LOT of news to catch up on! This site has been neglected for two very busy months, and though everything is still being updated, I will attempt to post monthly updates about what the Death Eaters are up to - this news format should be much more elegant than the previous one. But first, let's catch up on the last two months.

First, the Dancing Death Eaters had a hugely successful performance at Avada KedavRock! 2012, a concert they hosted in November that was a roaring success. The Death Eaters performed ten total numbers (all except 99 Death Eaters and Spells and Scars), all very successfully. The Swish and Flick numbers and Celestial Warmbottom numbers were done live with the artists singing. Julia's shoes have finally been filled, with Rosie coming in at the eleventh hour for Dear Aunt Celestial, and Sheila taking over the lead in Come to Party. The Death Eaters debuted FOUR new numbers, all of them resounding successes. Dark Mark Calling, Stronger Than Imperio, and the incredibly ambitious Oliver Wood were all well received. But even more so was the surprise new number, performed by Irvin and Leeza live with the Gringotts Girls, Oh, the Goblins and the Wizards Should Be Friends. A short but very comedic number, it left the audience - and the other Death Eaters - in stitches. While video of the DDEs' dances are still a work in progress, there is video up of the dances performed with the wrockers singing live - they can be found in a playlist of the entire concert, Avada KedavRock! 2012 Full Playlist

After their triumphant debuts at Avada KedavRock! and months of hard work, I am very happy to welcome two new Death Eaters to the fold - David the "Scintillating Skipper" and Rosie the "Beckoning Beauty"! Both of them have exhibited dedication to the troupe, both did some excellent dancing, and both went above and beyond to ensure that everything went well with AKRock!. I am sure they will continue to be valuable assets to the Dancing Death Eaters. They have been presented with their t-shirts in the typical induction ceremony, which will be uploaded to YouTube shortly. I am thrilled to welcome them on board!

However, in a sense the torch has passed to them from a departing Death Eater. It is with a heavy heart that, after Avada KedavRock!, we bid farewell to Leeza, the Dark Lady of the Dance. Leeza had been with the Death Eaters for two years, during which she'd grown immeasurably, while rising through the ranks to become the Dark Lady. No Death Eater has contributed more to the troupe than she, and Leeza will be very sorely missed. On November 30th, we formally bid her farewell, shed some tears, and she danced one final dance (Stronger Than Imperio) with Irvin. We wish her the best in her future evil endeavors.

Both the Current Roster and the Former Death Eaters pages have received a massive overhaul, not only to reflect the current updates, but also to add pictures of the Death Eaters and much more information about them.

In other big news, the Dancing Death Eaters (at long last) have opened an online store for our merchandise! DDE Online Store While the stuff is a bit more expensive to account for shipping, it sure makes it easier for any fans we have to buy our stuff, instead of waiting for our increasingly rare live performances. You can also use this to get the out of print Chocolate Frog Cards. Talk of which...

There is a new expansion of Famous Death Eater Cards! To reflect our changing roster, you can now get cards of current Death Eaters David, Rosie, and Sheila; you can also get cards of former DDEs Leeza and Julia, since they were such an integral part of our group.

Lastly, we aren't wasting any time, but are nearly done with work on a new number. All I'll say is that it is another Celestial Warmbottom song, as she requested. This one will be very exciting, since it will pay homage to all twelve of our previous dances in a cool way. There will also be a fully-costumed video shoot for it in the coming months. Look for updates on this site in a few weeks! I will also work on posting videos, updating our history, and preparing our third DVD ("Heinous Halloween"!).

That's all folks! And on behalf of all the Dancing Death Eaters, happy holidays!

November 1: Our new DVD has arrived! You can now get the DVD for $15, and they will most certainly be on sale at Avada KedavRock! 2012. Our Halloween lesson was an enormous success, with Halloween-y videos of Stronger Than Imperio, Dark Mark Calling, and Oliver Wood. Those videos will be available on our third DVD, work on which has already commenced - no time to waste when you're evil! Also, here is a teaser about our next new number: there are goblins involved.

October 18: Our second DVD, now titled "Fatal Fun" has been ordered! Boasting over an hour of dance footage and 100-minute running time, this is going to be great! Also, Jo Rowling has been presented with a DVD of our first nine dances - so if you own a Dancing Death Eaters DVD, you are now in very good company!

October 2: The Dancing Death Eaters are proud to announce the first wrock concert they will actually be hosting - Avada KedavRock! 2012. There will be no better showcase for the Death Eaters - in addition to debuting three grand new numbers (Stronger Than Imperio, Dark Mark Calling, and Oliver Wood), they will also be performing many old favorites. Most of these oldies will be performed with the wrockers live - including the first performance of Death Eater Tango set to live music! Visit the concert site for more info, and come watch us perform on November 10th!

September 18: The behind-the-scenes interview is finally filmed, after more technical difficulties than any interview should ever deal with. As soon as it is edited, the DVD will be sent to the printing presses. In other news, the DDEs are planning a wizard rock concert to showcase their new numbers on November 10th.

August 23: All dance footage for the second DVD is ready, clocking in at exactly 1 hour! Just a blooper reel and behind-the-scenes interview left, and Volume 2 will be ready, so we can look ahead to Volume 3. In other news, tomorrow will be the last lesson under the Dark Lady's leadership, as the Dark Lord returns next week.

August 11: All the individual character videos are completed! Together, they are 25 minutes long. Work is proceeding on other videos for the second DVD, with 51 minutes of footage already prepared, consisting of the "Come to Party" music videos and live performances from 2011. Also, the Dark Lord is back in NYC, and ready to whip the Death Eaters into shape!

August 1: Big news! Our music video for If You Didn't Come to Party is released at long last! Filmed back in March 2011, it has been languishing on memory cards for a long time, but it is finally here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBccydwBdH8&feature=g-upl In other news, there are individual character versions being made of the music video - there will be a total of six, for all the characters. Astoria's and Draco's are already done, Pansy's is currently in progress. Unfortunately, these are unavailable for public viewing, and will be found on our second DVD, which should be released this fall.

July 22: With the new Quidditch number well under way, the Dark Lady is running practice for the next few weeks working on the new number and possibly bringing some of the new recruits up to speed on old numbers. Meanwhile, the Dark Lord is away, but working on the long-awaited music video for Come to Party. There will soon be teasers and trailers of the music video up on the Internet.

June 15: Work has commenced on the new dance number. Several new recruits are involved, for a dance number that promises to have three couples, something the DDEs have not had since March 2011. Also something new we've not had since February 2010 - a guy other than the Dark Lord! Exciting developments indeed!

June 4: The Dark Lord is back! And exciting things are brewing, because the DDEs now have a Quidditch dance number in the works! Broomsticks, and everything! We're also heavily recruiting, because there is lots of potential for Death Eaters to die attempting the aerodynamic moves in this ambitious new routine. A clip of the Dark Lord and Lady discussing this new development has been captured on film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPbgwa11Zw

Jan 8: Three exciting things to announce! First, our new dance, a Quickstep to "Dark Mark Calling" by the Blibbering Humdingers, is ready! Don't know when we'll perform it, but it'll be great! Second, this Friday will be the last lesson Irvin leads until he returns in mid-May, so after the lesson there will be a ceremony to appoint Leeza the Dark Lady of the Dance in his absence. And third, we now finally have a (mostly) functional website! Anyone who knows enough to make this site pretty, please let me know and you will be given free reign!