Several dancers, wearing similar costumes, performed a choreography that seemed to control and restrain her movements. A fragment of "Dark Ballet" was included during Madonna's performance of "Future" and "Like a Prayer" at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. The song was then included on the singer's Madame X Tour (2019−20), where it was the second song of the setlist. The performance featured "Joan of Arc references, religious garb and battles with dancers in gas masks reminiscent of the mice in "The Nutcracker"", as well as a ballet breakdown halfway through. At one point, the singer gets pushed off a piano by one of the dancers. "Billboard"s Joe Lynch praised the number's "compelling mixture of Christian iconography and pagan pageantry".