The Dancing Plague of 1518

In the summer of 1518, in the city of Strasbourg, a woman named Frau Troffea stepped into the street and began to dance — and didn’t stop.

Within days, dozens of others had joined her, dancing seemingly against their own will, for hours at a stretch, some reportedly until they collapsed from exhaustion, and a number apparently died from strokes or heart failure brought on by the constant motion.

A Mystery That’s Still Debated

City authorities, believing more dancing was the cure, initially encouraged it, hiring musicians and building a stage — which likely only made things worse. Historians have proposed explanations ranging from mass psychogenic illness driven by extreme stress and famine, to ergot poisoning from contaminated grain, though no theory fully explains every detail.

Whatever caused it, contemporary records agree that hundreds of people danced uncontrollably through the streets for weeks.

What do you think is the more unsettling explanation — a poisoned harvest, or mass hysteria that just spread person to person?