Author: Jess Shumate
Picture a busy street in Strasbourg during the summer of 1518, when the sound movement and laughter fills the air. As soon as Frau Troffea encounters the sunshine, she begins to dance uncontrollably. Within days, the city turns into a display of dancing and insanity as scores of people join in a mad dance. Why would so many people dance until they were nearly exhausted or even dead? Combining aspects of psychology, society, and the supernatural, the 16th-century dance plagues continue to be one of history's most perplexing mysteries. Come explore this intriguing phenomena that has had a lasting impact on our fascination with curious human behavior.
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| The Dancing Mania by Hendrick Hondius | (1642) after Pieter Brueghel |
According to author Patricia Brauer, in a Britannica entry titled “Dancing Plague of 1518”, the dancing plague of 1518 was the best known recorded occurrence of a mysterious phenomenon that happened in the city of Strasbourg in the Roman Empire, which is now located in France. During the episode of 1518, hundreds of individuals are reported to have danced relentlessly beyond their own control and the madness continued for over two months, eventually stopping. This dancing plague began when in July 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea started dancing in the street and did not stop until she fell to the ground, seemingly unable to stop herself. After one week, 30 or more people were also experiencing uncontrollable dancing, After the council met about the strange happenings, they decided that the cure to this dancing plague was more dancing.
During medieval times dancing plagues were thought of as curses and were and spiritual diseases caused by the supernatural. Sin was blamed for the affliction of the cursed. Lynneth Miller, author of an article titled “Divine Punishment or Disease? Medieval and Early Modern Approaches to the 1518 Strasbourg Dancing Plague”, states that the church possessed the only treatment for dancing plagues or mania until 1518. Only a priest could heal the sinner from the affliction. Any person healed was considered to have been done so by divine intervention. People were, in fact, banned from the city for being “loose”. Cursed by the dancing plague, people were loaded and forced by wagon to journey to the shrine for divine healing.
By the mid-17th century, the episodes of mass dancing that had once gripped Europe had largely faded away, coinciding with a decline in intense supernatural beliefs. By the late 1600s, the term "St. Vitus’ Dance" was repurposed to refer to a different medical issue altogether. These unusual occurrences are noteworthy, as they illustrate how our beliefs and expectations can significantly influence the manifestation of psychological distress. In a time when genetic explanations dominate our understanding, the dancing plagues serve as a reminder that the symptoms of mental health disorders are not fixed; they can evolve with cultural contexts. Furthermore, the dancing mania phenomenon highlights the lengths to which fear and supernatural thinking can drive human behavior.
Author John Waller, in an article titled Dancing “Plagues and Mass Hysteria”, explains the dancing plague as a condition of people being in altered states and question the causes. Some believe this phenomena should be labeled as a mass psychogenic illness rather than a dancing plague or dancing mania. The extenuating circumstances could be factors, for example, environmental, multiple disease outbreaks, and the plague. Demonic possession was highly reported in these times; however, the author shifts us back to the altered state again, suggesting psychological illness.
Doomed to Dance: In 1247, Germany’s Erfurt witnessed a frenzied outbreak where dozens danced uncontrollably, highlighting the eerie and recurring phenomenon of medieval dancing mania.
Author Dr. Pallavi Saxena, in an article titled “The Dancing Plague: A Glimpse into History’s Mysterious Dance Epidemics”, outlines four major occurrences of dancing plagues or dancing mania as well as the possible causes for the mysterious phenomenon. The events listed are as follows: Kolbigk, 1021, Erfurt and Maastricht, 1247, The Great Dance of 1374, and The Strasbourg Epidemic of 1518, On Christmas Eve in 1021, the earliest known account of a dancing plague was recorded in the German town of Kolbigk. After dancing, clapping, and chanting madly outside of a church where mass was being conducted, eighteen people were cursed by the local priests to continue to dance for year. In Erfurt, Germany in Maastricht people danced across the Moselle River on a bridge until it caved in, and they were drowned. 1374 was a year of vast reports on the dancing plague. Reports included: screaming, visions, agonizing dancing for various periods of time, begging of clergymen, and “an odd dislike of red or pointed shoes”. The Strasbourg Epidemic of 1518 may have killed up to 15 people daily due to heart attack, stroke, and exhaustion.
Works Cited:
Bauer, Patricia. “Dancing Plague of 1518.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 8 Jan. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/event/dancing-plague-of-1518
Miller, Lynneth J. “Divine Punishment or Disease? Medieval and Early Modern Approaches to the 1518 Strasbourg Dancing Plague.” Dance Research, vol. 35, no. 2, Nov. 2017, pp. 149–164, https:// www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/drs.2017.0199?role=tab
Saxena, Dr. Pallavi. “The Dancing Plague: A Glimpse into History’s Mysterious Dance Epidemics.” Medbound, 20 June 2024, https://www.medboundtimes.com/medboundblog/the-dancing-plague-a-glimpse-into-historys-mysterious-dance
Waller, John. “A Forgotten Plague: Making Sense of Dancing Mania.” The Lancet, vol. 373, no. 9664, 21 Feb. 2009, pp. 624–625, https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736%2809%2960386-X/fulltext
Waller, John. “Dancing Plagues and Mass Hysteria.” The British Psychological Society, 16 July2009, https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/dancing-plagues-and-mass-hysteria
Links for further research:
BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7608000/7608874.stm This source is an article that describes the Dancing Plague of 1518 and illustrates how the physicians of the time believed that the cure for the dancing phenomenon was more dancing
History.com, https://www.history.com/news/what-was-the-dancing-plague-of-1518 This source is about the Dancing Plague of 1518 and gives a detailed account of the citizens and their participation in the event
The Public Domain Review, https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-dancing-plagueof-1518/ This source is an account of the Dancing Plague of 1518 that lists information previously not found in other sources, such as the number of dead.
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