The Dancing Plague - The Weirdest Outbreak Throughout Human History

2020 has been an unforgettably horrible year of human being’s history because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus that has killed thousands. Unfortunately, it is not the only disaster to fight with due to the appearance of the Dancing Plague - the weirdest epidemic that has been recorded. 

The Dancing Plague’s victims had the “symptoms” of dancing, twitching, or flailing their arms until being exhausted or suffering from heart attacks or strokes, eventually ended up dying. 

The earliest case of this extraordinary pandemic was found during the 7th century, and it was repeatedly seen sometime during the 1020s in Bernburg, Germany. 

Nearly 200 years after, in 1278, 200 people started dancing on a bridge across the river Meuse in Germany, which caused the collapse of the bridge. Sometime between 1373 and 1374, the Dancing Plague exploded once again in England, Germany, and the Netherlands. 

The 1518 Dancing Plague

The most famous onset of the Dancing Plague took place in July 1518 in Strasbourg, France with the initiation of a woman whose name was Frau Troffea started dancing in the street. Accompanied by 33 others, she continued dancing night and day for 4 days. Within a month, the number of recorded victims reached 400 dancers. 

Strasbourg authorities blamed this phenomenon for “hot blood”; therefore two guildhalls and a grain market were opened to support the dancers, even a wooden stage and musicians were provided. However, many dancers had to end both their dancing party and their living by August 1518. By September, the town transferred the remaining dancers to a shrine located in a mountaintop to pray for absolution. 

From 1973 to 1978, six Dancing Plague outbreaks exploded in factories in Singapore. Factory workers were reported to have the symptoms of screaming, trance states, and bizarre levels of fear. 

Notably, the worst recent case of this epidemic occurred in 2011 at a high school in New York. 12 teenage girls started to twitch as if they suffered from Tourette syndrome. All possible sources of infection or poisoning were crossed out and the city authorities concluded that those cases were caused by mass hysteria, as known as mass psychogenic illness.