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Strange deaths: the Dance Epidemic of 1518

In Science Daily Online we have told you before some deaths really puzzling , for example, in the article «Curious Suicides».On this occasion we want Tell you a very strange case that led a group of people to dance until they fell dead.Want to know more?

The Dance Epidemic of 1518

In July of 1518 , the town of Strasbourg (Alsace, then part of the Holy Roman Empire) witnessed one of the cases of coreomania more Strange and massive history.

How did it start?

A summer day of 1518 Frau Troffea, a neighbor, suddenly began dancing in the middle from a street in Estrarburgo.Frau Troffea kept dancing.

Strange deaths: the Dance Epidemic of 1518

Dance Epidemic in an engraving of the Church of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek.An engraving by Hendrick Hondius, on a drawing by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1564)

During the first week 34 people joined him, unable to stop his fervent dance.After a month , there were already 400 dancers rampant, who were falling one after another due to attacks to the heart , strokes cerebral and exhaustion extreme.

Measures against the plague dancer

The epidemic was getting worse and the nobles asked the doctors for a explanation .The doctors said it was a disease caused by « warming of the blood ".The authorities, however, did not proceed to bleed the dancers-the remedy of that time against" hot blood "-but decided to build halls from ba ile and stages and hired musicians to make the dancers dance more comfortably.Why? They believed that the way to end the epidemic was for the dance to last night and day until those affected were healed by themselves.

Strange deaths: the Dance Epidemic of 1518

Dance Epidemic, a painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, on a drawing of his father Pieter Brueghel the Elder

The plague ended as it had begun, for no apparent reason, and no one managed to find a logical explanation.That is, the dancing plague was charged hundreds strong> of lives in a really absurd way.

Coreomania

The plague dancer of 1518 is believed to be a manifestation of coreomania , also known as "dance disease" or, more popularly, "San Vito dance".

Coremania spread throughout Europe during the XIV and XVII and is considered a social phenomenon, still difficult to explain.

Who was affected?

This "disease" does not distinguish between sexes and ages, affects men, women and children equally and only ends when you fall to the ground exhausted.It could last from hours to meses.

This epidemic reached thousands of people for 4 centuries in scattered outbreaks throughout of Europe.

When did it occur?

After studying this mania, it has been concluded that it sprouts, usually, in difficult times and, in fact, some sources point out that they affected the women more.This could suggest that this dance obsession was generated by some kind of stress .Although other documents they deny that they were the ones who suffered the most.

Some sources argue that it could be organized meetings , although it has not been possible to prove, but, however, those affected by the compulsive danz They were in a kind of state of unconsciousness, of trance, that prevented them from taking control over their body.

Strange deaths: the Dance Epidemic of 1518

The dance of death, monument to Calderon de la Barca (Madrid), by Joan Figueras Vila, (1878)

The author Robert Bartolomew, who has studied this phenomenon, explains that some sources speak of foreign participants in dance, who they were able to start it and they did not reside in the population where the outbreak occurred.However, this does not occur in all cases of epidemic, so it is difficult to prove.It should be added that, Bartolomew, also highlights the behavior « sexual » during some outbreaks that include nudes, obscene gestures and culminations of the dance in intimate relationships among the participants.

In any case, what is clear is that the dancers did not stop dancing until they fell to the ground, already from exhaustion, from broken ribs or, unfortunately, because death took them away.

How did it end with her?

Actually stopped when the dancers were unable to continue dancing, but some sources talk about isolation os and exorcisms of the dancers.

Strange deaths: the Dance Epidemic of 1518

On other occasions, believing that it was a curse of San Vito (since in some regions the epidemic manifested itself on dates close to the day of this Holy), prayers and pilgrimages were made to locations consecrated by the saint to beg the end of the plague.

Some outbreaks

The first known outbreak dates from the seventh century and stopped repeating us until the seventeenth.

A different Christmas Eve

At some point in the decade of 1020, 18 Bernburg campaigns began to dance and even sing around the village church, reaching stop the celebration of a trade during Christmas Eve.Something very spectacular at a time when everything religious er deeply respected.

Traveling children and dancers

1237, several children start dancing frenetically and travel from Erfurt to Arnstandt, without stopping your dance.Does it sound like something to you? of 1518 "> The oldest drawing of Pied Piper, copied from a window of Marktkirche in Goslar

This incident closely resembles the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin , chance?

Dance with tragic end

Germany, 200 people end up congregating on a bridge that crossed the Mossa River.Unable to leave on top of the bridge and stopping his dance, the construction ends collapsing and taking the life of the majority.

16th century: years of heyday dance

Lo That said, the 16th century was the year that more incidents of this type occurred.These were documented by a medical professor named Gregor Horst, who explained that some women visited the San Vito chapel annually in Drefelhausen.These women they began to dance day and night, without stopping, until they fell round.Many of them returned the following year and performed exactly the same, carried by some strange impulse.Some, apparently, had danced the dance of San Vito for more than 20 years .

Theories around an unexplained phenomenon

1.Religious worship

There are several theories that ensure that it could be reactions that arose after a procession and that would aim to reduce the stress , allowing a period of time to forget the poverty and the difficulties experienced at the time.

Strange deaths: the Dance Epidemic of 1518

Victoria&Albert Museum, London.

Another option is that they were dances, actually, prepared and that they coincided with Roman rituals and of Ancient Greece that were banned at the time.It is possible that for that reason, those who participated would pretend to suffer a dance fever that is impossible to control, to avoid having to count their true motives , which would have well accused them of « heretics «.

2.Fire of San Antonio

Other hypotheses suggest that people who entered this dance trance could have been victims of poisoning by ergot, what is known as ergotism and which in medieval times was called « fire of St.Antonio «.

Strange deaths: the Dance Epidemic of 1518

Work of Matthias Grunewald, represents a patient suffering from advanced ergotism, (1512-16)

This was caused by a mycotoxin that can be found mostly in rye, but also in wheat or wheat oats barley.The "Fire of San Antonio" can cause hallucinations , although, in fact, it does not help explain why Choreomania, in particular.

3.Shared share

Hetherington and Munro, both professors universita Rivers of Social Sciences and specialized in social behavior, ensure that the dance epidemic could, in fact, be a manifestation of « shared stress «.The act of dancing towards reducing the stress of a life very hard and led them to experience a kind of ecstasy and, in some cases, visions.

Why did these dance epidemics really occur? Actually it remains an enigma, but it is very shocking that from the seventeenth century they stopped forever.Do you have any theory about it? Tell us!

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Images: Tom Woodward, Brittanie Pendleton, Arlette

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