Dancing mania

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The dancing mania Wellcome

Dancing mania (also known as dancing plague, choreomania, St John's Dance and, historically, St. Vitus' Dance) was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It involved groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes thousands at a time. The mania affected men, women, and children who danced until they collapsed from exhaustion. One of the first major outbreaks was in Aachen, in the Holy Roman Empire (now Germany), in 1374, and it quickly spread throughout Europe; one particularly notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg in 1518.

Causes

The several theories proposed range from religious cults being behind the processions to people dancing to relieve themselves of high stress and put the poverty of the period out of their minds. It is, however, thought to be a mass psychogenic illness in which the occurrence of similar physical symptoms, with no known physical cause, affect a large group of people as a form of social influence.

Symptoms

The symptoms could be as mild as a desire to dance or as severe as experiencing vivid hallucinations and a high fever. Some even had heart attacks or died from exhaustion.

Treatment

Historically, treatment involved isolation and encouraging the dancing. Music was often played to help the afflicted, but this tactic sometimes had the opposite effect.

See also

• Ergotism
• Tarantism
• Mass psychogenic illness
• Mass hysteria

External links

• BBC: Dancing Plague of 1518
• The Straight Dope: What caused the dancing mania of the Middle Ages?

Dancing mania Resources
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