What Happened at the Dancing Plague of 1518?/info


Introduction

In July 1518, a woman known as Frau Troffea stepped into a narrow street in Strasbourg (then part of the Holy Roman Empire, now in France) and began to dance. She danced without apparent volition or pleasure, continuing for hours and then days. Within a week, approximately 34 others had joined her. By August, the number of compulsive dancers had reportedly reached into the hundreds — some chronicles claim 400 — and several had died from exhaustion, stroke, or heart attack. Municipal and ecclesiastical authorities, unable to stop the affliction, initially prescribed more dancing as a cure (opening guildhalls and constructing a stage, and hiring musicians), before eventually resorting to religious intervention and removing the dancers to a mountaintop shrine dedicated to Saint Vitus. The episode subsided by September.

The dancing plague of 1518 is the best-documented instance of a broader phenomenon known as "dancing mania" or choreomania, which was reported episodically in western Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It presents a genuine explanatory challenge: a large number of people engaged in involuntary, prolonged physical activity to the point of injury and death, within a specific historical and cultural context, and without any clearly identified physiological cause. The event is well attested in contemporary municipal records, physician accounts, and chronicle entries, ruling out the possibility that it is a later fabrication.

What we know

The historical evidence for the 1518 episode is substantial. Municipal council records (Ratsprotokolle) from Strasbourg document the authorities' response in real time: the initial decision to allow and even encourage the dancing (by providing musicians and open spaces), followed by the decision to ban public dancing and transport the afflicted to the chapel of Saint Vitus at Hohlenstein. Physician notes, including those attributed to Paracelsus (who visited Strasbourg shortly after the episode), describe the dancers' symptoms and the authorities' confusion. Sebastian Brant, the humanist author then living in Strasbourg, referred to the episode in his writings. Several chronicle entries from the 16th century provide additional corroboration.

The 1518 event was not an isolated occurrence. Outbreaks of dancing mania were reported in the Rhineland in 1374 (affecting multiple towns simultaneously), in Strasbourg itself in 1418, and at various locations in the Low Countries and Germany throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. The 1374 outbreak is the earliest well-documented episode and is associated with the cult of Saint Vitus — it was believed that Saint Vitus could both inflict and cure compulsive dancing, creating a culturally specific framework for understanding the affliction.

Strasbourg in 1518 was experiencing severe hardship. A series of harsh winters and hot summers had produced crop failures and famine in the region. Smallpox and syphilis were epidemic. The city's poor were desperate and politically marginalised. Historian John Waller, who has written the most detailed modern study of the event, argues that these conditions created a "perfect storm" of physiological and psychological vulnerability.

The authorities' initial response — prescribing more dancing — reveals the cultural logic at work. The dancing was initially interpreted through a medical-humoral framework: the dancers' blood was thought to be overheated, and vigorous physical activity was prescribed to "burn off" the excess heat. When this failed, the interpretation shifted to a supernatural register: the dancing was attributed to the curse of Saint Vitus, and the appropriate remedy was pilgrimage and prayer. The transition between medical and religious frameworks, and the authorities' oscillation between them, is itself of historical interest, as Paola Bono (2017) has argued in Dance Research.

The physical symptoms described in contemporary accounts are consistent with what would now be classified as psychogenic movement disorder: involuntary, rhythmic movement of the limbs, inability to stop voluntarily, distress, exhaustion, and in some cases syncope or death. The movements were not described as joyful or ecstatic but as compulsive and agonising.

The episode ended gradually over August and September 1518, apparently following the combination of religious intervention (pilgrimage to the Saint Vitus shrine), removal from public spaces, and the passage of time. No clear biomedical resolution is documented.

Classification of theories

A. Plausible explanations (supported by evidence, not refuted):

  • Mass psychogenic illness (mass hysteria): The dancing plague was a form of mass psychogenic illness — a collective outbreak of psychogenic movement disorder — triggered by extreme social, economic, and psychological stress, and culturally shaped by belief in Saint Vitus's curse. This is the scholarly consensus position, most thoroughly argued by John Waller (2008, 2009). The cultural belief in the possibility of involuntary cursed dancing provided both the template for the symptoms and the mechanism for social contagion: people who believed they could be cursed to dance were psychologically vulnerable to developing the symptoms.

B. Possible explanations (raised by researchers, less well supported):

  • Ergot poisoning: The fungus Claviceps purpurea, which infects rye grain, produces alkaloids related to LSD that can cause convulsions, hallucinations, and involuntary movements. Ergotism has been proposed as a cause of the 1518 event and other dancing manias. However, ergot poisoning typically produces vasoconstriction and gangrene ("Saint Anthony's fire") rather than coordinated dancing, and the prolonged, rhythmic nature of the movement is not consistent with ergot-induced convulsions (Waller 2008).
  • Deliberate religious ritual or protest: Some scholars have suggested that the dancing may have been a form of deliberate religious expression or social protest that was subsequently pathologised. However, the contemporary accounts consistently describe the dancers as distressed and unable to stop, which is inconsistent with voluntary participation.

C. Highly unlikely but argued by some:

  • Deliberately staged event: The claim that the dancing was entirely staged — either as entertainment or political manipulation — is contradicted by the documented deaths and the authorities' evident confusion and distress.
  • Simple starvation-induced delirium: While famine contributed to the population's vulnerability, starvation alone does not produce the specific symptom profile of coordinated, prolonged, rhythmic dancing.

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Research Papers

Landmark Studies

1. Waller, J. (2008). A Time to Dance, a Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518. Cambridge: Icon Books. Full text: Not available online [widely available in print] [Agent-generated summary] Waller provides the most comprehensive modern account of the 1518 dancing plague, drawing on municipal archives, physician records, and chronicle sources. He argues that the episode was a form of mass psychogenic illness, triggered by extreme social and economic stress and culturally shaped by belief in the curse of Saint Vitus. Full-text notes: Waller's monograph is the definitive modern study of the 1518 event. He reconstructs the social, economic, and epidemiological context of Strasbourg in meticulous detail, documenting the crop failures, epidemics, and political marginalisation that afflicted the city's poor. He then develops the mass psychogenic illness explanation, arguing that the cultural belief in Saint Vitus's curse provided the specific template for the symptoms: people who believed they were cursed to dance manifested the predicted symptoms, and the social visibility of the dancing spread the affliction through psychological contagion. Waller systematically refutes the ergot hypothesis on pharmacological grounds.

2. Waller, J. (2009). "A forgotten plague: making sense of dancing mania." The Lancet, 373(9664), 624–625. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60386-X [publisher paywall] [Agent-generated summary] A concise summary of Waller's mass psychogenic illness interpretation, published in a leading medical journal and presenting the dancing plague as a historical case study relevant to understanding modern mass psychogenic phenomena. Full-text notes: This brief but authoritative paper brings Waller's argument to a medical audience. He emphasises that mass psychogenic illness is not a trivial or dismissive diagnosis but a well-documented phenomenon in which genuine physical symptoms arise from psychological causes, typically under conditions of extreme stress and within culturally specific belief frameworks. The paper cites modern examples of mass psychogenic illness (school-based outbreaks of fainting, twitching, and hyperventilation) as analogues. Publication in The Lancet signalled mainstream medical acceptance of the mass psychogenic interpretation.

3. Bono, P. (2017). "Divine Punishment or Disease? Medieval and Early Modern Approaches to the 1518 Strasbourg Dancing Plague." Dance Research, 35(2), 139–158. Full text: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/drs.2017.0199 [publisher paywall] [Agent-generated summary] Bono examines the competing medical and religious interpretations applied to the dancing plague by contemporary observers, arguing that the episode reflects new currents in late medieval thought about the relationship between disease, sin, and divine punishment. Full-text notes: Bono's paper is essential for understanding the cultural context in which the dancing plague was experienced and interpreted. She demonstrates that the authorities' oscillation between medical (humoral) and religious (curse/saint) explanations was not confused or contradictory by medieval standards but reflected a genuine intellectual debate about the nature of disease. The paper enriches the Waller framework by showing that the cultural "template" for dancing mania was not monolithic but contested — different observers drew different explanatory conclusions, and the authorities' responses shifted accordingly.

4. Wessely, S. (1987). "Mass hysteria: Two syndromes." Psychological Medicine, 17(1), 109–120. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700013027 [publisher paywall] [Agent-generated summary] Wessely provides a foundational classification of mass psychogenic illness, distinguishing two syndromes: mass anxiety hysteria (sudden-onset, short-duration symptoms such as fainting and hyperventilation) and mass motor hysteria (gradual-onset, prolonged-duration symptoms such as dancing, twitching, and convulsions). Full-text notes: Wessely's classification is directly relevant to the 1518 event. The dancing plague fits his "mass motor hysteria" category: a gradually developing outbreak of involuntary motor symptoms occurring under conditions of prolonged stress, spreading through social networks over days to weeks, and persisting for an extended period. Wessely notes that mass motor hysteria typically occurs in close-knit communities under severe stress, involves predominantly motor (rather than anxiety) symptoms, and spreads more slowly but lasts longer than mass anxiety hysteria. The 1518 episode matches this profile closely.

5. Bartholomew, R.E. & Wessely, S. (2002). "Protean nature of mass sociogenic illness: From possessed nuns to chemical and biological terrorism fears." British Journal of Psychiatry, 180(4), 300–306. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.180.4.300 [open access] [Publisher abstract] The authors review the changing forms of mass sociogenic (psychogenic) illness from the medieval period to the present, arguing that the content of episodes is shaped by prevailing cultural beliefs while the underlying psychological mechanism remains constant. Full-text notes: Bartholomew and Wessely trace the evolution of mass psychogenic illness from medieval dancing plagues and convulsive fits to modern chemical-scare and bioterrorism-fear outbreaks. Their central argument — that the mechanism is the same but the cultural "script" changes with context — directly supports Waller's interpretation of the 1518 event: the dancing was the culturally available form that mass psychogenic distress took in a society that believed in Saint Vitus's curse. In modern societies, the same mechanism produces different symptoms (fainting, nausea, perceived chemical exposure) because the cultural scripts are different.

Recent Studies

6. Wijdicks, E.F.M. & Boes, C.J. (2022). "Dancing Mania: What it Was and What it Was Not." JAMA Neurology, 79(10), 975–976. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.2317 [publisher paywall] [Agent-generated summary] Wijdicks and Boes review the neurological and historical evidence for dancing mania, concluding that the 1518 episode is best explained as mass psychogenic movement disorder rather than any organic neurological condition or toxicological exposure. Full-text notes: This brief but authoritative paper, published in a leading neurology journal, brings modern neurological expertise to bear on the historical episode. The authors distinguish dancing mania from organic movement disorders (chorea, dystonia, tic disorders) and from drug-induced involuntary movement, concluding that the symptom profile described in the 1518 sources — prolonged, rhythmic, voluntary-appearing but subjectively involuntary movement in multiple individuals — is most consistent with psychogenic movement disorder occurring in an epidemic pattern.

7. Odubo, T.R. et al. (2025). "Dancing Diseases: A Public Health Perspective on Emerging Outbreaks and Response Strategies." Greener Journal of Medical Sciences, 15(1). Full text: https://www.gjournals.org/2025/03/10/020425019-odubo-et-al/ [open access] [Agent-generated summary] A recent review examining dancing mania from a public health perspective, contextualising the 1518 episode within a broader framework of mass psychogenic outbreaks and considering implications for modern public health response. Full-text notes: This paper represents a recent effort to integrate the historical dancing plague literature with contemporary public health frameworks for responding to mass psychogenic events. The authors argue that the 1518 episode, while historically distant, offers lessons for managing modern outbreaks of mass psychogenic illness — particularly the importance of acknowledging affected individuals' genuine suffering rather than dismissing symptoms as "fake," and the role of authoritative intervention in breaking the cycle of social contagion.

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Current Discussions

  1. Britannica — "Dancing plague of 1518": Encyclopaedia entry summarising the event and the major interpretive frameworks.

URL: https://www.britannica.com/event/dancing-plague-of-1518

  1. BPS (British Psychological Society) — "Dancing plagues and mass hysteria": Accessible psychological account of the phenomenon and its modern parallels.

URL: https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/dancing-plagues-and-mass-hysteria

  1. Discover Magazine — "Dancing 'Till Death: The Mystery Behind Dancing Manias" (2021): Long-form journalism including interviews with Waller and discussion of modern analogues.

URL: https://www.discovermagazine.com/dancing-till-death-the-mystery-behind-dancing-manias-42954

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Future Research Directions

Archival research in Strasbourg's municipal archives (Archives de la Ville et de l'Eurométropole de Strasbourg) may recover additional documentary evidence — council minutes, physician reports, parish records — that could refine the chronology, mortality, and demographic profile of the afflicted.

Comparative analysis of all documented European dancing manias (1374 Rhineland, 1418 Strasbourg, various 15th–16th century Low Countries episodes, and the 1518 Strasbourg event) in a unified epidemiological framework could identify common risk factors, demographic patterns, and cultural correlates that are not visible from single-event studies.

The neuroscience of psychogenic movement disorders has advanced significantly in recent decades, with functional neuroimaging studies demonstrating altered brain connectivity in patients with psychogenic tremor, dystonia, and gait disorders. Theoretical models of psychogenic movement disorder informed by this evidence could provide a more precise account of the neural mechanisms underlying the 1518 episode.

Cross-cultural comparison of mass psychogenic motor events — including modern cases of mass psychogenic illness with movement symptoms in schools and factories in developing countries — could test the Waller/Bartholomew model's prediction that the content of episodes is culturally shaped while the mechanism is universal.

The 1518 event also raises questions about the role of authority and institutional response in perpetuating or resolving mass psychogenic episodes. The initial decision to prescribe more dancing may have worsened the outbreak by providing social validation and a supportive environment for the behaviour. Comparative study of institutional responses to mass psychogenic events could inform modern public health guidelines.

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Summary of Existing Research and Public Opinion

The scholarly consensus, established primarily by Waller and supported by Wessely's mass psychogenic illness framework, holds that the 1518 dancing plague was a genuine epidemic of psychogenic movement disorder, occurring in a population under extreme physiological and psychological stress, and culturally shaped by the belief system surrounding Saint Vitus's curse. The ergot hypothesis, while historically prominent, has been refuted on pharmacological grounds.

Public interest in the event is high — it is one of the most "shareable" historical curiosities on the internet — and tends toward sensationalism. Popular accounts often present the episode as a "mystery" without clearly articulating the mass psychogenic illness explanation, which is well-established in the scholarly literature. The event's inherent strangeness makes it attractive to media but also susceptible to superficial treatment.

The dancing plague occupies a distinctive position in the history of medicine and psychology: it is among the earliest well-documented cases of mass psychogenic illness, and its detailed archival record makes it uniquely valuable for understanding how psychological distress was experienced, interpreted, and managed in pre-modern European societies.

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Where Do I Come In?

This episode invites readers to engage with a historical event that is at once bizarre, well-documented, and scientifically explicable — but not yet fully understood. The dancing plague of 1518 is not a "mystery" in the sense that its explanation is unknown; it is a complex phenomenon whose explanation requires the integration of social history, cultural anthropology, neuroscience, and psychology.

Readers with backgrounds in psychology, neuroscience, or public health will find the mass psychogenic illness literature directly relevant to contemporary issues — including the management of modern outbreaks of psychogenic symptoms in schools and workplaces. Those interested in medieval social history will find the archival evidence for 16th-century Strasbourg richly informative about urban life, public health, and the relationship between religious and medical authority.

Observatory.wiki's community can contribute by compiling a comprehensive database of documented European dancing manias, including dates, locations, estimated numbers of participants, reported symptoms, institutional responses, and outcomes. Such a database would enable the kind of systematic comparative analysis that the field currently lacks and could serve as a resource for historians, psychologists, and public health researchers working on mass psychogenic phenomena.