Dancing Mania

Alone, in the middle of a silent street Frau Troffea began to dance. It was July of 1518 in Strasbourg, France when for no reason, Troffea started to dance. Not long after, bewildered neighbors came to watch. Even stranger, Troffea’s silent dancing was joined by first one neighbor, and then another. Their dancing was bizarre, and their faces were expressionless.

By the end of the week, more than 30 people had joined Troffea’s strange dance. They danced night and day. This was just the tip of the iceberg. Within a month, more than 400 citizens of Strasbourg were swept away by the dancing mania. Still there was no music and no explanation for what was happening. Yet they silently danced on.

Many of the dancers began to experience serious health problems from so much non-stop movement. The dancing was so extreme that some people literally danced themselves to death. They died from heart attacks, strokes, and severe exhaustion.

At this point, doctors were called. They ruled out supernatural causes, common during that time. Instead, they said the mania was natural and caused by ‘hot blood.’ When they failed to find a cure for the dancing, they decided to build a stage and invite musicians to play for the dancers. They thought that the cure might be for the dancers to dance until they got it out of their systems. No one knows why, but after a month of dancing, it stopped as mysteriously as it began.

While this sounds like a tall tale, it has been well documented by historians. And, it’s not the only case of its kind. “Dancing Mania” or St. Vitus’ Dance swept Europe from the 14th to 17th century. The most well known cases happened in Germany in 1374 and France in 1518.

Some psychologists say that what happened in France was an example of mass hysteria. Mass hysteria, sometimes happens in communities experiencing extreme stress. The Strasbourg dancing mania happened during a time of famine and malnutrition.

Other people believe that the dancing mania was caused by religious ecstasy. Saint Vitus is also known as the patron saint of dancing and epilepsy. The 1500s were a superstitious time. The local Christian church records say that people believed that Saint Vitus could “send down plagues of dancing.”

We will never know if the people of Strasbourg were suffering from mental illness or swept away by something that science can’t explain. The hearts and minds of humans are a mystery, and sometimes we lack the ability to explain why we do the things we do. Have you ever felt swept away by an experience you could not explain?

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