Disease of Dancing The Dancing Plague of 1518

 The dancing plague of 1518 was a phenomenon that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (now part of France), where hundreds of people danced uncontrollably for days on end. It started with a woman named Frau Troffea, who began dancing in the street and was soon joined by others. Within a week, the number of dancers had grown to 400, and many of them suffered from exhaustion, dehydration, and even heart attacks.

The cause of the dancing plague is still not fully understood, but it is believed to have been a form of mass psychogenic illness, also known as mass hysteria. This is a rare phenomenon in which a group of people collectively experiences physical symptoms that have no apparent medical or physiological explanation. In the case of the dancing plague, it is thought that the dancers were experiencing a form of stress-induced psychosis, triggered by a combination of social and environmental factors.

The dancing continued for several weeks and was only brought to an end when local authorities intervened, by setting up a stage and hiring musicians to encourage the dancers to keep moving. It is estimated that as many as 15 people died from exhaustion or heart attacks during the course of the dancing plague. The event has since become a symbol of the power of social contagion and the human capacity for irrational behaviora.