There’s a lot of weird things in this world, and sometimes we get to read about the mysterious and somewhat inexplicable.
A couple of times in the past months I’ve been listening to talks that revolve around mass hysteria and social contagion, and the Dancing Plagues of the Renaissance were mentioned.
Just the name of it and the brief description piqued my curiosity. I love certain types of dance–and dancing and movement have always connected with me. The idea that people began involuntarily dancing for seemingly no reason and that others were compelled to join in, and those who engaged continued to the point of collapse or even death, is quite noteworthy.
I consider the expression of various forms of human dancing quite beautiful and powerful, so it is also hard to imagine how something like that could become a plague. There are a number of theories of what prompted the dancing, and how or why it took hold of people almost as though through trance or power of suggestion.
We will never know for sure what caused this phenomenon, but for those with a curious mind for unusual history, I will link one historical accounts below! There are certainly a number of articles one can read about this, and I suppose it didn’t lodge well in my memory if I had ever heard of this in a previous history class.
Maybe some reader will draw a Trivia Pursuit card one day or get to be on Jeopardy, with the quick answer of “what was the Dancing Plague of the 1500’s?!”
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