In the sweltering July of 1518, the city of Strasbourg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, witnessed the bizarre and terrifying outbreak of what is now known as the “Dancing Plague.” The unsettling episode began when a woman named Frau Troffea stepped into the street and, without music or apparent cause, started to dance. Her initial solitary jig soon morphed into a week-long, relentless dance marathon.
Initially a spectacle, the situation rapidly deteriorated as dozens more Strasbourg residents joined Frau Troffea’s compulsive dance. By August, the dancing epidemic had engulfed an estimated 400 people. Baffled and alarmed, local physicians of the time attributed the phenomenon to “hot blood” and, in a misguided attempt to cure the afflicted, recommended they continue dancing to rid themselves of the feverish excess.
To further this perplexing remedy, city officials even constructed a stage and hired musicians, inadvertently fueling the frenzy. Professional dancers were brought in, and a band was employed to provide music, turning the city into an open-air dance floor. However, this approach backfired tragically. The relentless dancing, far from being therapeutic, pushed the afflicted to the brink of collapse. Exhaustion became widespread, and scores of dancers succumbed to strokes and heart attacks.
The macabre dance continued until September when, in a desperate measure, the remaining dancers were taken to a mountaintop shrine dedicated to St. Vitus, a saint believed to have the power to curse people with compulsive dancing. There, prayers for absolution were offered, and the dancing plague finally began to subside.
The dancing plague of Strasbourg, while seemingly unbelievable, is meticulously documented in 16th-century historical records. This was not an isolated incident; similar, though generally smaller, outbreaks of dancing mania occurred across Switzerland, Germany, and Holland during the medieval period. Yet, the Strasbourg event of 1518 remains the most extensively recorded and devastating.
Historian John Waller posits that the Strasbourg dancing plague was likely linked to the superstition surrounding St. Vitus. In 1518, Strasbourg was grappling with famine and disease, creating an atmosphere of immense stress and fear. This environment, combined with the deeply ingrained belief in St. Vitus’ curse, may have triggered a form of mass psychogenic illness or stress-induced collective hysteria, manifesting as uncontrollable dancing.
Another theory suggests ergot poisoning as a potential cause. Ergot is a toxic mold that grows on rye and can cause spasms, hallucinations, and other neurological symptoms. While ergotism could explain some aspects of the dancing plague, it doesn’t fully account for the social and psychological dimensions of the phenomenon.
The Strasbourg dancing plague remains a chilling and perplexing historical enigma, a testament to the complex interplay of social, psychological, and possibly physiological factors that can contribute to collective behavior and unexplained historical events.
