Like all other stories, the dancing plague also has several reasons behind as to how and why it started but the most relevant and often heard is the story of Frau.Troffea or Mrs. Trouffea.
As naturally as it occurs, the plague, was a bad omen that is said to have happened on the July of 1518, in Strasbourg when all of a sudden, a woman named Frau.Troffea began dancing in the middle of the road. There wasn’t any music she had for herself singing, nor were there anybody else playing.
What started off as a bizarre activity of a lonely woman starting to dance in the street that the people stood and watched it for a while or walked past giving her a weird look, soon became an event were the ‘passers-by’, the watchers also joining her.
The woman who started dancing, vibe until she was completely exhausted, fell down only to pick up her steps from where she left, after gathering up the energy needed. As she resumed her frenzied activity, about 30 people joined her in a week. They all danced and danced to the point where they had injuries.
The strange conduct of the public alarmed the city, while the religious groups believed that this ‘plague’ would only fade with more dancing. They theorized it to be a bad omen and so guild halls, musical set up and musicians were arranged for more people to join and dance off.
This however only made the situation worse and as many as 400 people joined, devoured by the obsession to dance. The situation worsened as most people died as they danced unable to stop, and the plague slowly faded away by September.
Although such crazy outbreaks have earlier happened in Europe, it was the 1518 event that was documented with enough details. It is believed that the people were possessed by the demons and had overheated blood, leading them to dance frenzy. Investigators in the 20th century suggested that the afflicted might have consumed bread made from rye flour contaminated with the fungal disease ergot, which is known to produce convulsions.
The widely accepted theory is that of John Waller, an American medical historian who reasoned that it was a form of mass psychogenic disorder. That is, it is an expression of extreme stress and due to fears. The famines, small pox, syphilis that were prevalent in 1518 in Strasbourg affected the people mentally and thus was expressed this way.
They also believed that those who failed to believe in St. Vitus were also cursed forcing them to dance.
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