The City That Couldn't Stop Dancing: Strasbourg, 1518
On July 14, 1518, a woman known to history as Frau Troffea stepped into a narrow street in Strasbourg and began to dance. There was no music and no celebration — witnesses described a grim, trance-like persistence. She danced for hours until she collapsed, then rose the next day and continued on swollen, bleeding feet. Within a week, some three dozen people had joined her. Within a month, chroniclers claimed, as many as 400 were dancing.
This is no medieval legend. The outbreak is documented in Strasbourg's city council minutes, cathedral sermons and physicians' notes of the day. The city's doctors blamed "overheated blood" and prescribed an astonishing cure: more dancing. The authorities opened guild halls, erected a stage and hired musicians and strong companions to keep the afflicted moving, convinced they would recover only by dancing the sickness out of their bodies. The plan backfired spectacularly — the frenzy spread faster than ever.
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