The Deadliest Dance Floor in History
The bizarre true story of the 1518 Dancing Plague where hundreds danced to their deaths.
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The bizarre true story of the 1518 Dancing Plague where hundreds danced to their deaths.
Full transcript of The Deadliest Dance Floor in History
In July 1518, a woman stepped into a quiet street and started to dance. No music. No stopping. By the end of the week, thirty-four others joined her. Within a month, the crowd swelled to four hundred people. Their bare feet bled. Ribs snapped from violent movements. Yet, their bodies thrashed in an uncontrollable frenzy. Panicking, city officials consulted local physicians. The doctors diagnosed the frantic crowd with hot blood. The official medical cure? They needed to dance it out. The city built a wooden stage and hired professional musicians. Heavy drums echoed through the dusty town square. But the upbeat music only fueled the terrifying mania. Dozens dropped dead from exhaustion right on the wooden boards. Modern historians suspect mass hysteria, triggered by severe famine. Or perhaps ergot poisoning, a hallucinogenic mold on damp rye. The exact cause remains one of history's darkest mysteries. The deadliest dance floor ever wasn't a club. It was sixteenth-century France.