In 1518 a dancing plague contaminated more than 400 people, killing most from pure exhaustion.
True fact.
The disease started in Strasbourg, France with a woman named Frau Troffea. She entered the streets one day jolting her body in rhythmic motions, unable to stop the contractions she danced alone for four days until the disease spread through the town.
By the end of the month 400 plus people were dancing with no ability to stop themselves. The authorities prescribed more dancing to the infected with the thought that their bodies would eventually give up or get tired. This act just made things worse and within a month people started dying off from heart attacks, strokes and exhaustion.
This is one of the craziest diseases and one that has baffled scientists for centuries. Historical documentation of physician notes, cathedral sermons, notes by Strasbourg city council members, and records of the dancer’s deaths proves the event truly transpired. Actually, there has been more than one occurrence of this plague, but nothing of the magnitude of Strasbourg.
Imagine if everyone just stood up and began to dance around the campus uncontrollably. It sounds pretty fun for about an hour, but days and days of it would make you want to die. The most peculiar aspect is that scientists don’t know what could have caused this sort of outbreak, or how it spread so fast or even if it could happen again.
There is a variety of possible causes of the dancing epidemic. Some scientists blame ergot, a mold which grows on damp rye. The citizens ate the moldy bread and they had convulsions and delusions. However, these convulsions would look more like spasms, not dance moves and would not last for days. Ergot is more along the lines of LSD, which would promote hallucinations, not actually make you get up and dance around the town. Another explanation: people were performing a ritual. But in the written accounts, there is no proof the people wanted to dance, their faces are described as fearful and desperate.
The most reasonable explanation for the dancers is mass psychogenic illness. The events which emerged before the disease spread were famine, bitter winters, death, malnutrition, disease, and fear. A lot of people feared ancient legends were cursing the towns and people were somehow provoking these bad things upon the citizens. A Christian church legend states that if anyone aggravates Saint Vitus he would send down plagues of compulsive dancing.
Although it’s a very odd plague, it obviously could do some damage. The citizens in this era heavily believed in these legends.
Since times were so stressful the residents of Strasbourg experienced mass hysteria and became entranced in the dancing epidemic. Mass psychogenic illness is the most agreed upon rationalization by scientists. A dancing epidemic would definitely be one of the most interesting ways to die.
l
enissen@coloradomesa.edu