It started with Frau Troffea
On 14 July 1518, Frau Troffea began to dance outside her house in Strasbourg, without music. Within a few days more than 30 people had joined in. By August there were between 50 and 400, depending on the source.
Your guess
What did the city council do as more and more people danced?
Then came the ban
The plan backfired. The council had the stages torn down and banned almost all music and dancing until September. The worst cases were taken by wagon to the shrine of Saint Vitus near Saverne – with small crosses in their hands and red shoes on their feet.
But why?
All that's certain is that people danced. One theory: ergot, a fungus on grain whose toxin is related to LSD. But poisoned people could hardly have danced for days, objects the historian John Waller. He suspects a stress-induced mass psychosis – in a region full of hunger, disease and superstition.
