The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness Paperback – 1 Sept. 2009 by John Waller (Author) › Visit Amazon's John Waller Page. “(…) flood waters pouring over town walls, homes and market places submerged, and decomposing horses bobbing along watery streets.”. The dancing plague died out because the supernaturalist beliefs that fed it gradually disappeared. First, they tried consulting astrologers. To everyone’s horror, Troffea kept dancing for six days. After the dancing plague commenced with Frau Troffea’s fervent-yet-joyless marathon of movement, her body eventually succumbed to severe exhaustion that left her in a deep sleep. The dancing plague (or dance epidemic) of 1518 was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (now modern-day France), in the Holy Roman Empire in July 1518. It started with a woman called Frau Troffea. Began dancing. Local elections: The party leader interviews. Many of the dancers were forcibly isolated and subjected to exorcism in order to be freed from the control of the demon. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for days. But it didn’t put a stop to the mania. Aug 2019. This theory has been largely discounted because of two reasons: The symptoms of ergotism tend to vary from person to person, so it is unlikely that large groups of people would experience it the same way. But this is highly unlikely. In the 1020s, 18 peasants were gripped by the mania in Bernburg. Forget Saturday Night Fever, this outbreak of uncontrollable dancing had people on their feet for days during the roasting-hot summer. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. It’s also not the only known incident of … The sources cited by Waller that mention deaths were all from later retellings of the events. We don’t know what caused people to dance to the death for centuries, but we do know several things with certainty. The lucky ones would collapse from sheer exhaustion. Experts first uncovered the dancing plague thanks to contemporaneous local records. So that many in their madness More chillingly, it was neither the first nor the last time groups of people would be seized by the so-called “dancing mania” — a seemingly curious but innocent phenomenon that becomes more ominous the more you learn about it. Members of cults who would otherwise be persecuted in Medieval Christianized Europe, could travel from place to place and perform their rituals under the pretense of possession and being “out of control.”. The dancing plague swiftly took over the city. The Dancing Epidemic of 1518. Offering another theory, historian John Waller posited that the dancing plague was simply a symptom of medieval mass hysteria. Sometimes it was just one person. There, the dancers’ bloodied feet were placed into red shoes before they were led around with a wooden figurine of the saint. It was not the first, though it was almost certainly the last to occur in Europe. There had previously been at least 10 other outbreaks of inexplicable dancing mania centuries before the events at Strasbourg took place. And, crucially, we also know they believed in a saint called St. Vitus who had the power to take over their minds and inflict a terrible, compulsive dance. American sociologist Robert Bartholomew posited that the dancers were adherents of heretical sects, dancing to attract divine favour. Requirements Guide. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Read more. “Bread prices reached their highest levels for a generation, thousands of starving farmers and vine growers arrived at the city gates, and old killers like leprosy and the plague were joined by a terrifying new affliction named syphilis.”. It lasted for such a long time that it attracted the attention of the Strasbourg magistrate and bishop, and some number of doctors ultimately intervened, putting the afflicted in a hospital. Listen above to the History Uncovered podcast, episode 4: Plague & Pestilence – The Dancing Plague Of 1518, also available on. On July 14, 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea from the city of Strasbourg in modern-day France left her house and began to dance. According to historian John Waller, the explanation most likely concerns St. Vitus, a Catholic saint who pious 16th century Europeans believed had the power to curse people with a dancing plague. The 1518 case is simply the best documented and by a richer variety of sources than its predecessors. The behavior spreads rapidly and broadly in an epidemic pattern. Nor would so many people have reacted to its psychotropic chemicals in the same way. Unable to summon any rational explanation, the crowds of people who witnessed Troffea’s dancing suspected it was the handiwork of the devil. As if possessed, they would helplessly dance for hours or days. What’s more, copious records of the plague appear in the city’s archives. The city was being consumed. Rather, she was suffering from what came to be known as the ‘dancing mania’ or ‘dancing plague’. Too Still. Historical documents, including "physician notes, cathedral sermons, local and regional chronicles, and even notes issued by the Strasbourg city council" are clear that the victims danced. Habitual. [5], This psychogenic illness could have created a chorea (from the Greek khoreia meaning "to dance"), a situation comprising random and intricate unintentional movements that flit from body part to body part.

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