In this episode, we get into the absolutely unhinged Dancing Plague of 1518 — the real moment when hundreds of people in Strasbourg danced for days, weeks, and sometimes literally to death.

We look at the dance manias that came before, the political and religious chaos that had everyone on edge, and how it all escalated after Frau Troffea started dancing and just… didn’t stop. We break down the competing explanations of the time — curses, saints, divine punishment, choreomania, humors, ergot, even early “hysteria.”

Then we connect it to now: what the dancing plague can teach us about mass psychogenic illness, social contagion, and the way behaviors go viral today, from TikTok tics to doomscrolling spirals.

A weird, chaotic, and surprisingly relevant deep dive into one of history’s strangest events.

Sources:

Andrews, Evan. “What Was the Dancing Plague of 1518?” History, August 31, 2015.

Lapinskas, Vincas. “A Brief History of Ergotism: From St. Anthony’s Fire and St. Vitus’ Dance until Today.” Medicina Teorija ir Praktika, 2007.

Miller, Lynneth J. “Divine Punishment or Disease? Medieval and Early Modern Approaches to the 1518 Strasbourg Dancing Plague.” Dance Research 35, no. 2 (2017): 149–164.

Petlevski, Sibila. “Choreomanic NeuroDance and Its Aesthetics: Dance Research and Controversies Connected to Cognitive Neuroscience and Meme Theory.” In Taboo–Transgression–Transcendence in Art and Science, 650–674.

Sweeney, John. “INFECTIOUS CONNECTIVITY: ILLUSTRATING THE THREE TOMORROWS.” In The Postnormal Times Reader, edited by Ziauddin Sardar, 137–58.

Turner, Osie. The Dance Manias of the Middle Ages. The Forlorn Press, 2013.

Waller, John. “A Forgotten Plague: Making Sense of Dancing Mania.” The Lancet 373, no. 9664 (2009): 624–625.

Waller, John C. “In a Spin: The Mysterious Dancing Epidemic of 1518.” Endeavour 32, no. 3 (2008): 117–121.

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