The Dancing Plague of 1518

Beginning in July 1518, a woman later identified as Frau Troffea began dancing uncontrollably in a Strasbourg street without musical accompaniment. She continued for a week, pausing only to sleep, and soon her husband and over thirty others imitated her movements. Within weeks, the number of afflicted grew to between 50 and 400 people. Witnesses described the dancers’ movements as spasmodic, with violent arm thrashing, vacant eyes, and bodies drenched in sweat. Blood pooled in their swollen feet, sometimes seeping into their shoes, and many cried out for help. Victims collapsed from heart attacks, exhaustion, hunger, or thirst; some sources claim up to fifteen deaths per day at the outbreak’s peak, though no contemporary city records confirm fatalities. The Strasbourg city council initially yielded authority to physicians, who prescribed that the afflicted “dance themselves free.” Guild halls were converted to accommodate the dancers, with musicians and strong assistants keeping them upright. This remedy backfired, and the council banned public dancing, fearing it was divine punishment from Saint Vitus. Those still dancing were ordered to the shrine of Saint Vitus, wearing red shoes sprinkled with holy water and painted with crosses, holding small crosses while incense and Latin incantations were performed. The epidemic subsided by September 1518, when remaining dancers were led to a mountaintop chapel to pray for absolution. Contemporaneous explanations included demonic possession, divine judgment, and overheated blood, which was thought curable by dancing followed by rest. Modern theories include stress-induced mass hysteria and ergot poisoning, but the cause remains unknown.