The Dancing Plague of 1518 (Episode 21)

In medieval Strasbourg, during a period of unimaginable suffering and poverty, a mania took hold. Infected people were gripped by the compulsion to dance in the streets until they dropped senseless from exhaustion - or died. When the strange illness began to spread, the city took a series of steps to help the afflicted, culminating in a thirty-mile trek to seek the intervention of an obscure saint who may or may not have been angry at the city's sinful lifestyle. On this episode, we look at the time period leading up to the dancing plague, possible causes, how it spread, what the cure looked like (it came with a free pair of red shoes!) and what made this event so much worse than similar ones across the late Middle Ages. 

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Sources for this episode include:  

“The Dancing Mania: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness”, J. Waller, 2009

“The Black Death and the Dancing Mania”, J F K Hecker, (Babington translation), 1856

“The Differential Diagnosis of Chorea”, E J Wild et al, published in ‘Practical Neurology’, 2007

“The Dancing Plague of the Middle Ages”, M. Petcova, published in ‘Medium’, 2020

“Dancing Plagues and Mass Hysteria”, J Waller, published in ‘The Psychologist’ (British Psychological Society), 2009