Dancing plague of 1518

Engraving by Hendrik Hondius portraying three people affected by the plague. Work based on original drawing by Pieter Brueghel.

The dancing plague of 1518, or dance epidemic of 1518 (French: Épidémie dansante de 1518), was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (modern-day France), in the Holy Roman Empire from July 1518 to September 1518. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks. There are many theories behind the phenomenon, the most popular being stress-induced mass hysteria, suggested by John Waller.[1][2] Other theories include ergot and religious explanations. There is controversy concerning the number of deaths.[3]

  1. ^ Viegas, Jennifer (August 1, 2008). "'Dancing Plague' and Other Odd Afflictions Explained : Discovery News". Archived from the original on October 13, 2012. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  2. ^ Waller, John (February 2009). "A forgotten plague: making sense of dancing mania". The Lancet. 373 (9664): 624–625. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60386-X. PMID 19238695. S2CID 35094677.
  3. ^ Pennant-Rea, Ned (July 10, 2018). "The Dancing Plague of 1518". The Public Domain Review. Retrieved 2023-04-25.