Image; Hendrik Hondius' artwork portrays three people affected by the plague. (Wikipedia)
Frau Troffea, a citizen of Strasbourg within the Holy Roman Empire, started dancing in the street. She continued to dance fervently for a week straight. By the end of this week, three dozen other citizens of Strasbourg had joined in on this dancing. Now, keep in mind that this had happened in July and by August of the same year, so not even two months later, somewhere near 400 people had been killed by this plague. These deaths were usually due to heart attack, exhaustion, or stroke, but no one knew how to remedy this outbreak, so it could not be fixed.
Eventually, the plague did start to subside as the endless dancers were sent to mountain shrines to pray for forgiveness and absolution. This, however, was not the first attempt to remedy this plague. First, physicians prescribed more dancing in order to cure the tormented souls, but this only led to more death. Let's talk a little bit more about why "more dancing" was prescribed. The physicians believed that the victims were acting this way because their blood was hot, and that they were dancing to rid themselves of the heat. Now, while I know this isn't going to work, I can understand from where the doctors were coming. I know that when I burn my hand on something, I shake it aggressively, sort of as a second nature response. Of course, this didn't work, and the dancers only ended up dying due to heat and exhaustion; surprise, surprise!
Another common reason for this dancing plague was, you guessed it, demons. It was believed to be the result of demonic possession or divine judgment. Those who danced were said to be suffering from punishment from Saint Vitus and were ordered to go to the shrine of Saint Vitus and wear red shoes that were sprinkled with holy water, and had painted crosses on the tops and soles. They also had to hold small crosses in their hands, burn incense, and say various Latin incantations. Those who somehow recovered, because apparently this worked and the dancing slowly died down, were given the title "Forgiven by Vitus."
More modern reasonings for this plague include food poisoning and mass hysteria. Mass hysteria is often regarded by scholars as the most plausible reason. Some say it was an example of fully developed cases of psychogenic movement disorder or mass psychogenic illness, which involves many individuals suddenly exhibiting the same bizarre behavior. The behavior spreads rapidly and broadly in an epidemic pattern. This kind of comportment could have been caused by elevated levels of psychological stress, caused by the ruthless years (even by the rough standards of the early modern period) the people were suffering. This psychogenic illness could have created a chorea (from the Greek khoreia meaning "to dance"), a situation comprising random and intricate unintentional movements that flit from body part to body part. Diverse choreas (St. Vitus' dance, St. John's dance, and tarantism) were labeled in the Middle Ages, referring to the independent epidemics of "dancing mania" that happened in central Europe, particularly at the time of the plague.
The event inspired many references in pop culture, such as the 2022 choral song "Choreomania" by Florence and the Machine. It was the third track on the album Dance Fever, which took its title from the song. The 2023 novel, The Dance Tree, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, is a fictionalized version of the summer of 1518 in Strasbourg.
Of course, because this is a historical event from 1518 and not 2023, our records are not the best. There is uncertainty around the identity of the initial dancer (either an unnamed woman or "Frau Troffea") and the number of dancers involved (somewhere between 50 and 400). Of the six chronicle accounts, four support Lady Troffea as the first dancer.
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