Sage explains the title in an interview with Tiny Mix Tapes:
Human the Death Dance was… alright, I stole that title from Buddy Wakefield. Buddy put out a record on Strange Famous Records and he gave me a list of 50 titles. He’s like “I don’t know what to call my record.” One of them was “Human the Death Dance.” And I was like, “I like that one, you should call your album Human the Death Dance.” I like the images it conjures. I like the idea of it, whatever idea that is. But he didn’t choose it. So, I used it for my album. My working title for the album was “Grave Dancer” or something, but so far all my albums have 5 syllables and Human the Death Dance had fit that quota. And I think the Death Dance is what we do in the face of death every day. What inspires us to either stay in line or to step out of line – out of fear of the unknown. What we do out of fear of the unknown –- that’s the dance. And it’s a very human, shared experience.