In July 1518, a woman in Strasbourg stepped into the street and began to dance. She didn't stop for six days. Within a month, hundreds had joined her — dancing until some, according to contemporary records, collapsed and died.
The city's solution? Hire more musicians. Build a stage. Encourage more dancing.
It made everything worse.
This is the true story of the Dancing Plague of 1518 — one of history's strangest documented epidemics, and the theory historians now believe actually explains it.
Sources: Strasbourg city and church records, subsequent historical research including work by historian John Waller.
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