The 1518 Dancing Plague: When Strasbourg Couldn't Stop Dancing

In July 1518, a woman known only as Frau Troffea began dancing alone in a street in Strasbourg — and within a month, roughly 400 people had joined her. City physicians blamed 'hot blood' and prescribed more dancing before authorities reversed course, banning music and blaming a curse from Saint Vitus. Drawing on council minutes, physicians' notes, and Sebastian Brant's own chronicle, this film tells the story of the best-documented dancing plague in European history, and what modern historians now believe caused it. Chapters: 0:00 Inside the Dancing Plague 0:32 A City Already Under Strain 1:30 One Woman's Dance 2:39 The Council's Reversal 3:21 Pilgrimage to Saint Vitus 3:51 What Really Caused It This is a true story. Primary sources: • Sebastian Brant's Annals (compiled by Jacques Wencker); Public Domain Review • Contemporary chronicles cited in John Waller, A Time to Dance, a Time to Die (2009) • Multiple 16th-century Strasbourg chronicles; Waller (2009) • Waller (2009); Dance Research journal, 'Divine Punishment or Disease?' (2017) • Strasbourg municipal archive disbursement records, cited in Waller (2009) • Sebastian Brant manuscript note, cited in Dance Research journal (2017) • Sebastian Brant's Annals; Dance Research journal (2017) • Sebastian Brant's Annals, compiled by Jacques Wencker • Contemporary chronicles; Waller (2009) • Dance Research journal, 'Divine Punishment or Disease?' (2017) • Waller (2009); Britannica, 'Dancing plague of 1518' • National Geographic; Waller (2009) Music & sound (via Openverse, Creative Commons): • Music: "Dark Night Sad Mood String Violin Viola Drone 120Bpm Thriller Cinematic Music.wav" — szegvari (CC CC0 1.0) https://freesound.org/people/szegvari... • SFX: "footsteps on sidewalk - actions" — julius_galla (CC BY 3.0) https://freesound.org/people/julius_g... • SFX: "hammering or knocking sound" — deraj (CC CC0 1.0) https://freesound.org/people/deraj/so... • SFX: "Church Bell.wav" — MVMTech (CC CC0 1.0) https://freesound.org/people/MVMTech/... 📌 Full image, archive and quotation credits are in the pinned comment below.