A short tale about the dancing plague of 1518. I go over questions such as -

What caused the dancing plague of 1518?
Was it demonic possession, disease or mass psychological issues that caused the plague?
Dancing plague of 1518 death count.
How long did the dancing plague last?
Dancing plague cause?
Who is Frau Trofea?
Dancing mania disorder.
Dance mania.
st vitus dance.
dancing plague of 1518 documentary

If you found it hard to understand my commentary then here is the captions / script for the video -

The Dancing plague of 1518, an event in which hundreds of citizens of Strasbourg danced uncontrollably and apparently unwillingly for days on end; the mania lasted for about two months before ending as mysteriously as it began.

In July 1518, a woman whose name was named Frau Troffea stepped into the street and began dancing. She seemed unable to stop, and she kept dancing until she collapsed from exhaustion. After resting, she resumed the compulsive frenzied activity. She continued this way for days, and within a week more than 30 other people were similarly afflicted. They kept going long past the point of injury. City authorities were alarmed by the ever-increasing number of dancers. The city and religious leaders theorized that more dancing was the solution, and so they constructed a stage and arranged guildhalls for the dancers to gather in. They also hired musicians to accompany the dancing, and as well as hiring professional dancers to help the afflicted continue dancing. Although this only exacerbated the contagion, and as many as 400 people were eventually consumed by the dancing compulsion. The dancers rarely stopped to eat or drink and didn't seem affected by the eventuall bruising of their feet. A number of them even started to die from strokese and heart attacks brought on by the dancing. The strange episode didn’t end until September.

The Strasbourg dancing plague might sound like the stuff of legend, but it’s well documented in 16th century historical records. It’s also not the only known incident of its kind. Similar manias took place in Switzerland, Germany and Holland, though few were as large—or deadly—as the one triggered in 1518.

Explanations that were proposed at the time for the dancing plague included demonic possession and overheated blood. Investigators in the 20th century suggested that the afflicted might have consumed bread made from rye flour contaminated with the fungal disease ergot, which is known to produce convulsions. American sociologist Robert Bartholomew posited that the dancers were followers of religous cults, dancing to attract divine favour. The most widely accepted theory was that of American medical historian John Waller, who laid out in several papers his reasons for believing that the dancing plague was a form of mass psychogenic disorder. Such outbreaks take place under circumstances of extreme stress and generally take form based on local fears. In the case of the dancing plague of 1518, Waller cited a series of famines and the presence of such diseases as smallpox and syphilis as the overwhelming stressors affecting residents of Strasbourg. He further maintained that there was a local belief that those who failed to worship St. Vitus, patron saint of dancers, would be cursed by being forced to dance.

#scary #history #interesting

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