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In the summer of 1518, hundreds of people in Strasbourg danced for days on end, and the city's cure was more music. The Short follows Veit, a fictional street fiddler, from the morning the first woman began to dance to the weeks when the council paid bands to keep the dancers going. This is the history behind it.
Physicians who called it a natural disease of overheated blood and prescribed more dancing.12
A council that cleared guild halls, built a stage at the horse market and paid musicians to keep the dancers moving.125
One chronicle's count of 400 dancers within a month.12
A ban on public music and dancing, and dancers carted to a shrine of Saint Vitus and given red shoes.13
The day, hour by hour
1517 to 1518
A hungry city
A run of bad harvests, famine, disease and unrest left Strasbourg under severe strain. The historian John Waller sees that strain as the root of what followed.16
VEIT
Bad harvests. No weddings, no fairs. Who pays a fiddler now?
14 July 1518
One woman starts to dance
A woman, named in four of six chronicles as Frau Troffea, began to dance alone in the street, with no music. She kept on for four to six days and was then taken by wagon to the shrine of Saint Vitus at Saverne.13
Today, a woman in this street starts to dance. She won't stop for days.
Within a week
Thirty more
Within a week, 34 others had joined her.2 The physicians ruled out curses and the stars: it was "a natural disease" caused by overheated blood, and the cure was to dance it out.12
VEIT
The doctors say it's hot blood. Dance it out, they say.
Late July to August
The cure: more dancing
The council cleared two guild halls and the grain market, built a wooden stage at the horse market and paid musicians (drums, fiddles, pipes and horns) and healthy dancers to keep the afflicted moving.125 It made things worse: onlookers took the dancing for Saint Vitus's wrath, and more joined in.1
STRASBOURGAUG 1518 14:00
By the end of August
Hundreds
The Imlin family chronicle says the dancing seized 400 people within a month.12 Accounts describe dancers collapsing from exhaustion; how many died, if any, is disputed.34
Within a month, one chronicle counted 400 dancers.
Late August to September
Red shoes
The council tore down the stages and banned almost all public music and dancing. The worst affected were carted to Saverne, where priests gave them small crosses and red shoes marked with holy oil. By September the outbreak had faded.13
The worst were carted to a St Vitus shrine and given red shoes.
Physicians blamed overheated blood. Their cure: more dancing.
The council paid musicians to play for the dancers. Then it banned most music.
Veit is fictional. The council's band is real.
Every line, checked
Each line from the Short that makes a historical claim, beside what the record says.
On screen · opening
Today, a woman in this street starts to dance. She won't stop for days.
The record
Most chronicles agree one woman started it, in mid-July; 14 July is the date in Pennant-Rea's account. She danced for four to six days.12 Placing her in this street is our invention.
Medium
On screen · life
VEIT
Bad harvests. No weddings, no fairs. Who pays a fiddler now?
The record
Strasbourg had suffered a string of bad harvests and famine.16 Veit and his lack of work are our invention.
High
On screen · the omen
ODILIA
Papa, thirty people are dancing now! They can't stop!
The record
Within a week, 34 others had joined (Waller); "more than thirty" (Pennant-Rea).12
High
On screen · shrug-off
VEIT
The doctors say it's hot blood. Dance it out, they say.
The record
The physicians declared it a natural disease caused by overheated blood, rejected bleeding and advised that the afflicted dance it out.12
High
On screen · the event
STRASBOURGAUG 1518 14:00
The record
No source dates the stage. The dancing peaked in August, so the screen shows the month only.12
Medium
On screen · break
ODILIA
Papa, they paid you to play. Why is it getting worse?
The record
The council paid musicians and dancers to keep the afflicted moving, and the plan backfired as more people joined.125
High
On screen · chaos
Within a month, one chronicle counted 400 dancers.
The record
The Imlin family chronicle counts 400 within a month; other estimates run from 50 to 400.123
High
On screen · aftermath
The worst were carted to a St Vitus shrine and given red shoes.
The record
The wagons, crosses and red shoes come from Daniel Specklin's chronicle, written later in the century.13
Medium
On screen · fact card
The council paid musicians to play for the dancers. Then it banned most music.
The record
The council paid musicians to play for the dancers, then banned almost all public music and dancing until September.12
High
Open question
Open question
Did anyone really dance to death?
One chronicle says that for a time the dancing killed about fifteen people a day, and Waller writes that the chronicles agree dozens died.24
But the city's own records from that summer do not mention deaths, and the accounts that do were written later.3 Nobody knows the real toll.
Contested
Think about it
Physicians, the council and the church each had an explanation and a cure. How did each one shape what happened next?
John Waller argues that hunger and fear made the dancing possible; others have blamed ergot poisoning. What evidence would help you decide?
The council's cure made things worse. Can you think of other times a public response spread the thing it was meant to stop?
Much of what we know comes from chronicles written years later. How should a historian weigh them against a council decree from that summer?
Glossary
Dancing mania
Outbreaks of compulsive dancing recorded in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries; also called choreomania.
Saint Vitus
An early Christian martyr. People believed he could curse sinners with dancing, or cure them of it.
Humours
The old medical theory that health depends on a balance of four body fluids. "Overheated blood" was a humoural diagnosis.
Guild hall
The meeting house of a trade guild, such as the carpenters or tanners.
Chronicle
A record of events written year by year, often by a town official, a cleric or a family.
Mass psychogenic illness
Physical symptoms that spread through a group under stress, with no infection or poison behind them.
Ergot
A fungus on damp rye that can cause convulsions and hallucinations when eaten.
The competing explanations, and the hardships the city was living through.
Cite this pageHistory's NPCs. "The Dancing Plague of 1518 (Strasbourg, 1518): Dance It Out." The Codex, 2026. https://historysnpcs.com/07-dancing-plague/
Veit
Odilia
VEIT
STRASBOURGAUG 1518 14:00
