E04 - The Dancing Plague of 1518: Did People Really Dance to Death?
In July 1518, a woman in Strasbourg stepped into the street and started dancing, and she didn't stop. Within weeks, by one chronicle's count, hundreds of people were dancing day and night on bleeding feet. The city's expert solution? Hire a band.
This is the true story of the Dancing Plague of 1518: Frau Troffea, a city council that built dance stages in the horse market and then banned the drums, a saint believed to curse sinners with dancing, a pair of holy red shoes, and the famous "15 people a day" death toll that the 1518 records don't actually support. Plus the two big theories, ergot…
The skinny
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