What was the Dancing Plague of 1518 all about?
Right from devastating wars to deadly epidemics and natural disasters, the world has gone through a lot over the last few centuries. Sadly, there were no modern medicines or sophisticated warfare tactic to mitigate such losses. One such event in which hundreds of people in France’s Strasbourg lost their lives, the Dancing Plague of 1518. Here’s all you need to know about this unusual disease and its effects.
The street dancers of the 16th century
A bizarre episode occurred in July 1518 at Strasbourg, Alsace (then part of the Holy Roman Empire). Frau Troffer, a French woman, began dancing in the street with an agonised expression on her face. She danced for six days straight! By the end of the week, 34 more people had joined Troffer in dancing aimlessly in the streets, day and night. Within a month, there were believed to be 400 dancers, some of whom danced themselves to death. Some estimates suggest that up to 15 people perished every day as a result of heart attack or a stroke triggered by continuous dancing. Bizarre indeed!
Dance more to get better!
But what was the source of this odd behaviour then? Back then, medical science wasn’t that advanced. So, doctors hypothised that the dancing epidemic was caused by ‘hot blood’ in the affected people. More dancing was prescribed as a remedy! In fact, a stage was built, and municipal officials actually paid musicians to keep playing so that dancers could continue their act. It is believed that the dancing went on all summer, with the death toll increasing. The set of last dancers were carried to a mountainside shrine to pray. Unfortunate, isn’t?
A superstitious possession
Modern theories suggest that the source of this frenzy was a combination of hard times and a superstitious populace. Disease and famine were rife in Strasbourg at the time. According to historian John Waller, many religious Europeans in the 16th century believed that St. Vitus, a Catholic saint, possessed the power to curse people with the dancing plague. When combined with the difficulties of everyday living, people may have experienced stress-induced hysteria, Waller believes.
Well, there were some other theories too regarding this mass hysteria. One of them points out that these afflicted dancers were members of a religious cult. Another one blamed it on ingested ergot (a toxic mould found in rye that caused hallucinations and sudden muscle contractions). Ergot can cause spasms and delusions and also decrease our body’s blood supply. This means that it would have made it challenging for people to dance so much. While we will never know for certain what caused the mysterious 1518 dance disease, Waller's idea appears to be the most plausible one.