Dancing Epidemic

The dancing plagues are little remembered today in part because they seem so unbelievable.

Dancing epidemic. The hysteria kicked off when a woman known as Frau Troffea stepped into the street and began to silently twist twirl and shake. The city authorities ensured that the outbreak got out of control by having the dancers gathered together and left to dance in some of the most public spaces in the city Waller 2008. First of all there was precedent.

Likewise dozens of medieval authors recount the terrible compulsion to dance and note that in 1374 the dancing epidemic swept across western Germany the Low Countries and north eastern France. Electric Six - Dance Epidemic. In fact there had been as many as ten dancing epidemics before 1518 one in 1374 engulfing many of the towns of modern day Belgium.

Indeed the Strasbourg epidemic exemplifies the awesome power of suggestion. In 1518 one of the strangest epidemics in recorded history struck the city of Strasbourg. Here is the story of the FDAs investigation told through a sampling of the more than 1300 pages of documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Hundreds of people were seized by an irresistible urge to dance hop and leap into the air. Dancing mania also known as dancing plague choreomania St. The mania lasted for about two months before ending as mysteriously as it began.

Every European dancing plague between 1374 and 1518 had occurred near Strasbourg along the western edge of the Holy Roman Empire. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for days. Medieval Europe had no shortages of plagues super deadly disease outbreaks that could wipe out a chunk of the population without much effort.

She kept up her solo dance-a-thon for nearly a week and before. Perfectly healthy people can be exhausted by a few hours dancing let alone days. Johns Dance and St.