10 Images Telling The Strange Story Of When People Literally Danced To Death In 1518
Carly Tennes
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Yesterday
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creepy
No matter how much you may have hit the dance floor this past weekend, these French villagers have you beat. In 1518, a "Dancing Plague" swept through a small town in then-Alsace, leading tens to hundreds of people to shake it until they either died or experienced horrifying injuries.
From the origins of this mass hysteria to the theories behind why it happened, here are 10 images telling the story of the Dancing Plague of 1518.
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1. The Dancing Plague of 1518
Image in Public DomainLong before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sang “dance ’til you’re dead” in “Heads Will Roll,” up to 400 French folks wound up doing just that during the Dancing Plague of 1518. -
2. Patient Zero
Image in Public DomainLike with any plague, this dancing hysteria had a patient zero. In July 1518, a local woman named Frau Troffea took to the streets of Strasbourg, France (then Alsace) and proceeded to dance, dance and dance some more. -
3. Dancing Queen
Image in Public Domain“Frau Troffea had started dancing on July 14th on the narrow cobbled street outside her half-timbered home,” explained London-based writer Ned Pennant-Rea. “As far as we can tell she had no musical accompaniment but simply 'began to dance.’” -
4. Starting a Movement
Courtesy of historyextra.comFrau Troffea’s solo only lasted for so long, with more and more folks joining her in her impromptu performance. “Some of those who had witnessed her strange performance had begun to mimic her,” Pennant-Rea added, “and within days more than thirty choreomaniacs were in motion, some so monomaniacally that only death would have the power to intervene." -
5. Gruesome Deaths
Courtesy of Library of the Strasbourg City MuseumsIt didn’t take long for things to get gruesome. Alongside the dancers growing sweaty and bleeding into their shoes, several died of strokes and heart attacks. -
6. Death Toll
Courtesy of Urs GrafIt’s unclear how many people died during the ordeal, but some accounts claim up to 15 people died per day at the height of the deadly craze, per “A Time To Dance, A Time To Die.” -
7. Mysterious Moves
Courtesy of Wikimedia CommonsThough the dancing ultimately died down that September, the cause of why, exactly this started remains a mystery, despite "physician notes, cathedral sermons, local and regional chronicles, and even notes issued by the Strasbourg city council" confirming it all went down, as Jennifer Viegas of Discovery News put it back in 2008. -
8. Food Poisoning
Image in Public DomainEven so, some experts have devised a few theories as to why folks decided to get a little too jiggy with it. One point to food poisoning — specifically, that folks were consuming a psychedelic compound related to LSD that may have been growing on their grains. -
9. Stress
Courtesy of Andrew KnightonAnother theory stated that stress may have been behind the ordeal, arguing that factors like disease and lack of food may have sent locals into a form of psychosis. -
10. Dance ’Til You Drop
Courtesy of Wikimedia CommonsThough the world may never know what, exactly caused this dancing plague, one thing is certain: It’s one heck of a creepy tale.
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- 10 Images Telling The Strange Story Of When People Literally Danced To Death In 1518
The Dancing Plague of 1518
Long before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sang “dance ’til you’re dead” in “Heads Will Roll,” up to 400 French folks wound up doing just that during the Dancing Plague of 1518.
Long before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sang “dance ’til you’re dead” in “Heads Will Roll,” up to 400 French folks wound up doing just that during the Dancing Plague of 1518.
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