Emily Chan
During the summer of 1518, the people who lived in the city of Strasbourg, which was once part of the Holy Roman Empire in modern-day France, started dancing themselves to death in the streets.
The bizarre phenomenon all started in July when a woman named Frau Troffea began twisting, twirling, and jumping around without any music.
At first, the other residents found the public display amusing. It was a nice distraction from the daily monotony of life in medieval Strasbourg.
However, six days later, Frau Troffea still hadn’t stopped dancing. She also hadn’t slept or eaten anything. No matter the weather or what time of the day it was, she could be seen leaping and spinning in the streets.
Before long, a crowd of nearly three dozen people joined her in her dance routine. By August, the number of participants had grown to 400. Local physicians were unable to explain the cause behind such an unusual event, so they chalked it up to “hot blood” and simply suggested dancing the fever away.
The Strasbourg city council built a stage and invited professional dancers to perform. A band was even hired to provide music. Eventually, many people began to collapse, overwhelmed by exhaustion.
Some even died from heart attacks and strokes. There are sources that say the nonstop dancing was killing 15 people per day at its peak.
The epidemic finally ended in September when the worst-afflicted dancers were brought to a mountaintop shrine. Once they were gone, the dancers who were left stopped their boogying.
The Strasbourg dancing plague of 1518 is well-documented in various 16th-century historical records, such as doctor’s notes, reports from the city council, and church sermons. However, it isn’t clear as to what exactly led people to dance until they dropped dead.
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