DANCING PLAGUE

DANCING PLAGUE: TRANSFORMATION OF A DIVINE ART TO A NIGHTMARE

“Dancing is the hidden language of the soul” – Martha Graham, an American modern dancer, once said. It is not necessary to reveal stories through dancing, instead, we express our feelings to communicate our inner soul through simple gestures. A philosopher once said that dance and architecture were the first art forms. It is believed that when a dancer dances with full grace, even heaven comes down to earth, making this art form a divine. 

Then, how is it possible for such a divine art to turn into a nightmare or in other words – an epidemic ?

It was a beautiful, warm and cozy day in the month of July, 1518, that people of Strasbourg noticed Frau Troffea, a solitary woman started dancing in the middle of the street, without a music but full of Joie de vivre. Even though the crowd was laughing at her expense, she did not stop. Day and night she danced, without food and rest. By the end of the week, 34 more people joined her. About 400 came forward like a swarm of bees by the end of the month; creating a dancing mania.

Strasbourg dancing plague

"Many hundreds in Strassburg [sic] began,

 To dance and hop, women and men,

In the public market, in alleys and streets,

Day and night; and many of them ate nothing

 Until at last the sickness left them.

This affliction was called St Vitus’ dance"

                                     - A poem taken from contemporary chronicles

Although Strasbourg dancing plague was the significant and most discussed, there were some more similar incidents reported in the medieval period. For instance, an event in Kölbigk, Saxony in 11th century can be an account to begin with. 

In the case of Strasbourg dancing mania, it is reported that each day, 15 residents died from exhaustion, strokes, fatigue, heart attacks and so on with symptoms like delusions, headache, breathlessness, trembling,  fainting, appetite loss, etc.  

It was believed that these dancing mania was due to some demonic possession or divine judgment. In 1518, shrine of St. Vitus, the saint associated with this disease, came as a relief to treat it spiritually, whereas town council and other authorities used medical treatments. 

Many hypothesis exist related to dancing plague. One theory says that a venomous specie of tarantula

Venomous Tarantula

produces sporadic tarantism symptoms which includes weakness, nausea, muscular pain and twitching and shaking of limbs. It is reported that tarantula might have caused infectious disease than a poison.

Another strong theory is the mass hysteria or called as mass psychogenic illness. Starting with disturbance of nervous systems such as excitation, alteration of functions, etc. where physical complaints are excluded unconsciously with no organic etiology associated. Here, it initiated in a small group showing same or similar bizarre behavior, which is then transforms to an epidemic, rapid and broad. 

Another theory is based on toxicology. Bread being a staple food in most of the nation from the beginning, might have a role in this epidemic. Ergot fungi, that

Ergot fungi

produces a psychoactive compound – Ergotamine, is commonly grown in raw material of bread such as wheat and its family members. And this theory is considered as a stronger or appropriate cause as Ergotamine which has similar structure and functioning to lysergic acid diethylamide, which is results in visual hallucinations and delusions when taken in higher doses. Or in worst scenario, it can lead to severe psychosis on overdose situation.

Sebastian Brant

Again, as Sebastian Brant mentioned in his work “Ship of Fools” in 1494, may be dancing mania is a divine punishment for sins and city’s wickedness according to medieval view.

There’s naught more evil here on earth

Than giddy dancing gayly done . . .

If some class that as recreation

I call it base abomination;

Some crave for dances many a tide

Whom dances never satisfied.

Thus the dancing epidemic and its cause and cure remain as an unsolved mystery the world !

If that the case, who knows when will be the next dancing plague will occur !! And how it is possible to cure this time !!!

References

1. Quote from Chronicle, MS. Argent, now lost. Quoted in E. Louis Backman, Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine (London: Allen & Unwin, 1952), p. 237. Manuscript information, unless noted otherwise, was taken from Backman. 

2. Al-Subeihi, M. S. (2019). Dancing to Death.

3. Sebastian Brant, The Ship of Fools, ed. Edwin Hermann Zeydel (ACLS Humanities E-Book, 2012), pp. 204–205.

4. Miller, L. J. (2017). Divine Punishment or Disease? Medieval and Early Modern Approaches to the 1518 Strasbourg Dancing Plague. Dance Research, 35(2), 149-164.