The Dancing Plague of 1518

In 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea stepped into the streets of Strasbourg and

started dancing. She didn't stop. For days, she kept moving, and then something

even stranger happened. Within a week, dozens of people joined her. Within a month,

over 400 people were dancing in the streets, unable to stop themselves. Many danced until

they collapsed from exhaustion. Some even died from strokes and heart attacks.

The authorities thought they had gone mad and tried to cure them by encouraging more

dancing. They built stages and hired musicians, believing the dancers just needed to dance

it out. But it only made things worse. Historians still debate what caused