One woman started dancing in the street. A month later, hundreds of people in the same city couldn't stop.
The Outbreak
In July 1518, in the city of Strasbourg -- then part of the Holy Roman Empire, now in modern-day France -- a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing in the streets without music. Within days, dozens of others had joined her; by August, contemporary accounts suggest as many as 400 people were affected, dancing for extended periods, some reportedly until they collapsed from exhaustion.
How Authorities Responded
City officials, believing more dancing would cure the affliction, reportedly arranged for musicians and even a dedicated dance hall to accommodate those affected -- a response that, by most accounts, only encouraged the phenomenon to spread further before it eventually subsided in September.
How Many Died
Historians have never agreed on a precise death toll. Some contemporary accounts suggest the episode contributed to a number of deaths from exhaustion, stroke, or heart attack among participants, though reliable figures don't exist. Historian John Waller, who wrote a full-length study of the outbreak titled "A Time to Dance, a Time to Die," has argued deaths did occur among the most severely affected.
Competing Theories
One theory attributes the outbreak to ergot poisoning -- a toxic mold that can grow on rye and cause convulsions and hallucinations. Waller and other historians have argued against this explanation, noting ergot poisoning typically impairs motor control rather than enabling sustained, coordinated dancing over days or weeks. The leading alternative explanation is mass psychogenic illness, in which extreme collective stress -- Strasbourg had recently suffered famine, disease, and economic hardship -- manifested as a shared physical compulsion, a phenomenon dance historians have compared to other documented outbreaks of mass hysteria throughout history.
Not an Isolated Case
The 1518 outbreak is the best documented, but similar "dancing mania" episodes were reported in other parts of Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries, suggesting it wasn't an entirely isolated phenomenon, even if Strasbourg's outbreak remains the most thoroughly recorded.
FAQ
What caused the Strasbourg dancing plague?
No single cause has been definitively proven. The leading historical theory is mass psychogenic illness driven by extreme collective stress, though this remains debated.
How many people died?
No reliable figure exists. Some historians argue deaths occurred among those most severely affected, but contemporary records don't provide a confirmed count.
Did this happen only once?
Similar dancing mania outbreaks were documented in other parts of Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries, though the 1518 Strasbourg case is the most thoroughly recorded.