The '''Dancing Plague''' (or '''Dance Epidemic''') '''of 1518''' was a case of [[dancing mania]] that occurred in [[Strasbourg]], [[France]] (then part of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]) in July 1518. Numerous people took to dancing for days without rest, and, over the period of about one month, some of the people died from [[heart attack]], [[stroke]], or [[exhaustion]].

== Events ==
The outbreak began in July 1518, when a woman, Frau Troffea, began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg.<ref name="Discovery Viegas">{{cite web |url= http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/01/dancing-death-mystery.html |title= 'Dancing Plague' and Other Odd Afflictions Explained |first= Jennifer |last= Viegas |date= 1 August 2008 |work= Discovery News |publisher= [[Discovery Communications]] |accessdate= 8 August 2008 }}</ref> This lasted somewhere between four to six days. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers. Some of these people eventually died from heart attack, sun stroke, or exhaustion.<ref name="Discovery Viegas" /> 

Historical documents, including "physician notes, cathedral sermons, local and regional chronicles, and even notes issued by the Strasbourg city council" are clear that the victims danced.<ref name="Discovery Viegas" /> It is not known why these people danced to their deaths.

As the dancing plague worsened, concerned nobles sought the advice of local physicians, who ruled out [[astrological]] and [[supernatural]] causes, instead announcing that the plague was a "natural disease" caused by "hot blood." However, instead of prescribing [[Bloodletting|bleeding]], authorities encouraged more dancing, in part by opening two guildhalls and a grain market, and even constructing a  wooden stage. The authorities did this because they believed that the dancers would only recover if they danced continuously night and day. To increase the effectiveness of the cure, authorities even paid for musicians to keep the afflicted moving.<ref name="end">{{cite journal |title= In a spin: the mysterious dancing epidemic of 1518 |first= John C. |last= Waller |journal= Endeavour |volume= 32 |issue= 3 |month= September |year= 2008 |pages= 117–121 |publisher= [[Elsevier]] |doi= 10.1016/j.endeavour.2008.05.001 |issn= 0160-9327 |accessdate= 14 January 2009 |pmid= 18602695 }}</ref> Some of the dancers were taken to a shrine, where they sought a cure for their affliction.

== Modern explanations ==
=== Mass psychogenic illness ===
Historian John Waller thinks that the dancing epidemic was caused by [[mass psychogenic illness]] (MPI), a manifestation of [[mass hysteria]] that is often preceded by extreme levels of psychological distress. Waller states that famine had been prevalent in the region for some time, caused by very cold winters, very hot summers, crop [[frost]]s, and violent [[hail]]storms.<ref name="Discovery Viegas" /><ref name="bbc1" /> Mass deaths followed from malnutrition, and those who survived were forced to kill their farm animals, take out loans, and perhaps even beg in the streets. In addition to food shortages, diseases such as [[smallpox]], [[syphilis]], [[leprosy]], and "the [[English sweat]]" (a new disease) afflicted the populace, as well as "spiritual despair on a scale unknown for generations."<ref name="bbc1" /> This series of events might have triggered the MPI.

=== Ergotism ===
It has been suggested that the cause of the plague was [[ergotism]], which results from consuming [[ergot]]-laced bread. Ingestion of ergot, a psychotropic mold that grows on [[rye]], can lead to [[delirium]], [[hallucination]]s, and [[seizure]]s, as well as other symptoms. While today this is called ergotism, contemporaneously it was known as "[[Anthony the Great|Saint Anthony]]'s fire." However, another symptom of ergotism is loss of blood supply to the limbs, making coordinated movement like dancing difficult; as such, Waller considers it to be an unlikely cause of the plague.<ref name="bbc1">{{cite web |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7608000/7608874.stm |title= Dancing death |first=John |last= Waller |date= 12 September 2008 |publisher= [[British Broadcasting Corporation]] |accessdate= 16 January 2009 }}</ref>

=== Ecstasy ===
Sociologist Robert Bartholomew of [[James Cook University]] in Australia contends that the dance was part of an "[[religious ecstasy|ecstatic ritual]] of a [[Christian heresy|heretical]] sect."<ref name="Discovery Viegas" /> This explanation is questioned by Waller, who believes "there is no evidence that the dancers wanted to dance," citing recorded evidence that the dancers showed expressions of "fear and desperation."<ref name="Discovery Viegas" />

===Saint Vitus' dance===
[[Saint Vitus's dance]] is a term used for the [[dancing mania]]s of medieval times (as well as for [[Sydenham's chorea]] or [[chorea (disease)|chorea]] in general). [[Vitus|Saint Vitus]] is primarily invoked to protect against [[epilepsy]], a disorder characterised by recurrent unprovoked seizures. Chorea, which can be present in epilepsy or a variety of other nervous system disorders, can be characterised by quick, patterned muscular contractions, or sometimes slower, stormy, writhing motions (athetosis). In a 1931 ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' article, it was suggested that victims of "Saint Vitus's dance" (in this context, Sydenham's chorea)—who are most often children—were brought before images of St. Vitus when they were stricken with convulsions.<ref name="Time 1931">{{cite news |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742341,00.html |title= Fever v. St. Vitus's Dance |work= [[Time (magazine)|Time]] |publisher= |date= 28 September 1931 |accessdate= 9 August 2008 }}</ref>

Catholic legend says that invoking the wrath of St. Vitus could provoke compulsive dancing<ref name="Discovery Viegas" /> (or that dancing before an image of St. Vitus would imbue good health for the following year).<ref name="Time 1931" /> However, this explanation does not support how so many cases of chorea could arise simultaneously in the population, nor how so many adults were affected.

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |first= Eugene Louis |last= Backman |origyear= First published in 1952 |year= 1977 |title= Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine |location= Westport, CT |publisher= [[Greenwood Press]] |isbn= 978-0837196787 }}
* {{cite book |first= John |last= Waller |year= 2008 |title= A Time to Dance, A Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518 |location= Thriplow |publisher= [[Icon Books]] |isbn= 978-1848310216 }}
* {{cite book |first= John |last= Waller |year= 2009 |title= The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness |location=Naperville, IL |publisher= [[Sourcebooks, Inc.]] |isbn= 978-1-4022-1943-6 }}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7608000/7608874.stm "Dancing death"] by John Waller. BBC News. 12 September 2008.

[[Category:Mass hysteria]]
[[Category:Dance and health]]

[[Category:1518 in Europe]]
[[Category:History of Strasbourg]]

[[es:Epidemia de baile de 1518]]
[[pt:Epidemia de Dança de 1518]]