Location: Strasbourg, France š«š· ( July 1518)
Story:
It began with one woman, Frau Troffea, who stepped into the street and began to dance, not with joy, but with a frenzied, agonized rhythm she could not stop. Within days, her solitary dance became a contagion. Dozens, then hundreds, joined her, moving uncontrollably for days without rest. Their feet bled, their minds screamed for relief, yet their bodies would not obey. Authorities, baffled, built a stage and hired musicians, believing more dancing would "sweat out" the illness. Instead, the epidemic intensified.šš»
Twist:
By summer's end, up to 15 people per day were dropping dead from exhaustion, heart attacks, or stroke, their corpses piled in streets still echoing with the frantic stamping of the living. The plague only ceased after the afflicted were led to a mountain shrine for prayer and ritual. To this day, no one knows for certain what caused it, whether mass psychogenic illness, ergot poisoning from moldy rye, or a perfect storm of famine, fear, and faith. The Dancing Plague remains one of history's most eerie examples of the mind's power over the body, a time when an entire city danced not to live, but until they died. ā