The Time 400 People Couldn't Stop Dancing (and It Killed Them)

In July 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea stepped into the streets of Strasbourg and began to dance. She didn't stop for six days. By the end of the month, 400 people had joined her, and some were dead.

It Started With One Woman

Frau Troffea began dancing near a shrine in Strasbourg (then part of the Holy Roman Empire). No music. No celebration. Just fervent, unstoppable dancing.

For six days straight, she danced. People tried to restrain her. She kept dancing. They tried to get her to rest. She kept dancing. Her feet bled through her shoes. She kept dancing.

Then others joined her.

The Plague Spreads

Within a week, 34 people had joined Frau Troffea in her compulsive dance. Within a month, the number swelled to 400. They danced day and night, unable to stop even as their bodies broke down.

Contemporary reports describe dancers begging for help even as their legs kept moving. They collapsed from exhaustion, only to get back up and continue dancing. Some danced until their feet were raw bone and blood.

Many danced themselves to death—as many as 15 people per day at the plague's peak, according to some accounts.

The "Cure" Was More Dancing

Here's where it gets even stranger. The city's physicians and authorities decided the dancers were suffering from "hot blood" and that the cure was—wait for it—more dancing.

They hired musicians. They built a wooden stage. They even paid for "strong men" to keep the dancers upright and moving when they collapsed. The theory? They needed to dance it out of their systems.

Spoiler: This did not help.

What Actually Happened?

Modern theories range from the medical to the mystical:

Mass Psychogenic Illness: Extreme stress can cause groups to share physical symptoms. Strasbourg in 1518 was dealing with famine, disease, and spiritual anxiety.

Ergot Poisoning: A fungus that grows on damp grain can cause hallucinations and spasms. It's basically natural LSD. But ergot causes convulsions, not coordinated dancing.

Religious Ecstasy: Some historians point to the cult of Saint Vitus, who could curse people with dancing. Maybe they believed so hard, they made it real.

The truth? We'll never know. But 400 people danced uncontrollably in the streets while authorities built them a stage and hired a band.

The End

The plague ended as mysteriously as it began. After weeks of manic dancing, the remaining dancers were taken to a shrine to pray for absolution. The dancing stopped.

Until 1840, when it happened again in Madagascar. Because history doesn't just repeat—sometimes it dances.

Next time you can't get a song out of your head, be grateful it's not making your legs move for six days straight.