{{short description|16th century mass dancing mania in Strasbourg}}
{{refimprove|date=July 2020}}
[[File:Die Wallfahrt der Fallsuechtigen nach Meulebeeck.jpg|thumb|250px|Engraving portrays three women affected by the plague. Work based on original drawing by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder|Pieter Brueghel]], who supposedly witnessed a subsequent outbreak in 1564 in [[Flanders]]]]

The '''dancing plague''' (or '''dance epidemic''') '''of 1518''' was a case of [[dancing mania]] that occurred in [[Strasbourg]], [[Alsace]] (now modern-day [[France]]), in the [[Holy Roman Empire]] in July 1518. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for days.

== Events ==
The outbreak began in July 1518 when a woman began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg.<ref name="Discovery Viegas">{{cite web |title='Dancing Plague' and Other Odd Afflictions Explained |last=Viegas |first=Jennifer |date=1 August 2008 |work=Discovery News |publisher=[[Discovery Communications]] |url=http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/01/dancing-death-mystery.html |access-date=6 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013075434/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/01/dancing-death-mystery.html |archive-date=13 October 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 

Historical documents, including "physician notes, cathedral sermons, local and regional chronicles, and even notes issued by the Strasbourg city council" are clear that the victims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.

Historical sources agree that there was an outbreak of dancing after a single woman started dancing, a group of mostly young women joined in, and the dancing did not seem to die down. It lasted for such a long time that it attracted the attention of the Strasbourg magistrate and bishop, and some number of doctors ultimately intervened, putting the afflicted in a hospital.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}}

==Controversy==
Controversy exists over whether people ultimately danced to their deaths.

Some sources claim that, for a period, the plague killed around fifteen people per day;<ref name="lancet">{{cite journal|author=Waller J|date=February 2009|title=A forgotten plague: making sense of dancing mania|url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2809%2960386-X/fulltext|url-status=dead|journal=Lancet|volume=373|issue=9664|pages=624–625|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60386-X|pmid=19238695|s2cid=35094677|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108120740/http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60386-X/fulltext|archive-date=2014-11-08|access-date=2016-04-08}}</ref> however, the sources of the city of Strasbourg at the time of the events did not mention the number of deaths, or even if there were fatalities. There do not appear to be any sources contemporaneous to the events that make note of any fatalities.<ref name="Clementz">{{Cite journal|last=Clementz|first=Élisabeth|date=2016|title=Waller (John), Les danseurs fous de Strasbourg. Une épidémie de transe collective en 1518|url=https://journals.openedition.org/alsace/2457|journal=Revue d'Alsace - Fédération des Sociétés d'Histoire et d'Archéologie d'Alsace|volume=142|pages=451–453}}</ref>

The main source for this claim comes from John Waller, who has written several journal articles on the subject and the book ''A Time to Dance, a Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518''. The sources cited by Waller that mention deaths were all from later retellings of the events. There is also 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).{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

==Modern theories==

=== Food poisoning ===
Some believe<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bauer|first=Patricia|title=Dancing Plague of 1518|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/dancing-plague-of-1518|url-status=live|archive-date=December 30, 2020 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica|at=Paragraph 4, Lines 4-9}}</ref> the dancing could have been brought on by food poisoning caused by the toxic and psychoactive chemical products of [[ergot]] fungi, which grows commonly on grains (such as rye) used for baking bread. [[Ergotamine]] is the main psychoactive product of ergot fungi; it is structurally related to the drug [[lysergic acid diethylamide]] (LSD-25) and is the substance from which LSD-25 was originally synthesized. The same fungus has also been implicated in other major historical anomalies, including the [[Salem witch trials]],  although ergot alone would not cause unusual behavior or hallucinations except when combined with opiates.{{cn|date=August 2020}}

However, John Waller in ''[[The Lancet]]'' argues that "this theory does not seem tenable, since it is unlikely that those poisoned by ergot could have danced for days at a time. Nor would so many people have reacted to its psychotropic chemicals in the same way. The ergotism theory also fails to explain why virtually every outbreak occurred somewhere along the [[Rhine]] and [[Moselle]] rivers, areas linked by water but with quite different climates and crops".<ref name="lancet"/>

=== Stress-induced mass hysteria ===
This could have been a florid example of psychogenic movement disorder happening in mass hysteria or [[mass psychogenic illness]], which involves many individuals suddenly exhibiting the same bizarre behavior. The behavior spreads rapidly and broadly in an epidemic pattern.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kaufman|first1=David Myland|title=Kaufman's Clinical Neurology for Psychiatrists. Chapter 18: Involuntary Movement Disorders|last2=Milstein|first2=Mark J.|date=2013|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-7234-3748-2|edition=Seventh|pages=397–453}}</ref> 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 of [[Alsace]] were suffering.<ref name="lancet"/>

Waller speculates that the dancing was "stress-induced [[psychosis]]" on a mass level, since the region where the people danced was riddled with starvation and disease, and the inhabitants tended to be superstitious. Seven other cases of [[dancing plague]] were reported in the same region during the [[medieval era]].<ref>{{cite web|date=13 August 2008|title=Mystery explained? 'Dancing Plague' of 1518, the bizarre dance that killed dozens|url=http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/258521|access-date=3 July 2017}}</ref>

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 ([[Dancing mania|St. Vitus' dance, St. John's dance]], [[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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cardoso |first1=Francisco |last2=Seppi |first2=Klaus |last3=Mair |first3=Katherina J |last4=Wenning |first4=Gregor K |last5=Poewe |first5=Werner |title=Seminar on choreas |journal=The Lancet Neurology |date=July 2006 |volume=5 |issue=7 |pages=589–602 |doi=10.1016/S1474-4422(06)70494-X|pmid=16781989 |s2cid=41265524 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Haq |first1=Ihtsham U |last2=Tate |first2=Jessica A |last3=Siddiqui |first3=Mustafa S |last4=Okun |first4=Michael S |title=Youmans and Winn Neurological Surgery: Clinical Overview of Movement Disorders |date=2017 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-323-28782-1 |pages=573–585.e7 |edition= Seventh }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaufman |first1=David Myland |last2=Geyer |first2=Howard L |last3=Milstein |first3=Mark J |title=Involuntary Movement Disorders |date=2017 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-323-46131-3 |pages=389–447 |edition= Eighth}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Sydenham's chorea]]
* [[Tanganyika laughter epidemic]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Backman |first=Eugene Louis |title=Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine |year=1977 |orig-year=1952 |location=Westport, CT |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |isbn=978-0-8371-9678-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Waller |first=John |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=978-1-84831-021-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Waller |first=John |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}}

==External links==
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7608000/7608874.stm "Dancing death"] by John Waller. BBC News. 12 September 2008.
* [http://historicmysteries.com/the-dancing-plague-of-1518 "The Dancing Plague of 1518"] by Doug MacGowan. Historic Mysteries. 28 June 2011.
* "[https://www.strasbourg1518.com Strasbourg 1518]" (dance-theatre production) by Borderline Arts Ensemble. [[New Zealand Festival of the Arts]].  12 March 2020.
* "[https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2020/29/strasbourg-1518 Strasbourg 1518]" (short film) by Jonathan Glazer. BBC. 20 July 2020. 

[[Category:1518 in Europe]]
[[Category:Ailments of unknown cause]]
[[Category:Retrospective diagnosis]]
[[Category:Dance and health|Plague]]
[[Category:History of Strasbourg]]
[[Category:Mass hysteria]]
[[Category:16th-century health disasters]]
[[Category:1510s in France|1518]]