Death by Dancing?

The Dancing Plague was similar to a lot of plagues throughout history, but who ever thought dancing to death was possible? Well, IT IS.

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Matthew: 0:00

macabrepedia deals with dark subject matter that may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Marissa: 0:08

In the year 541 Common Era plague hit the city of Constantinople. They call it the plague of Justinian after the Emperor Justinian. I came from the recently conquered land of Egypt, and the shipments of tribute grain, and the rats that came along in the shipments. Plague infested fleas came along with these rats, and it wasn't long before they jumped to humans in the city. From Constantinople, the plague spread across all of Europe, Asia, Arabia, and Northern Africa, is spread far and wide and killed everywhere it went. For it was done. 30 to 50 million people had died of the Black Plague, a number that at the time was a third of the world's population. Nobody knew what to do except to avoid the sick, but the fleas didn't care. And this was far before antibiotics were created to fight the bacterial infection. Eventually, it did subside, but it never went away. People either got over it, or they died. 800 years later, it came back and spread again far and wide. The Black Death hit Europe in 1347 and killed 20 million people in just four years. Again, they knew to keep away from the sick. Venice started requiring ships to stay locked down for 30 days, which was called a Trentino. Eventually, they increased it to 40 days, which they call it a quarantine No. And that's where we get the word quarantine. Cats and dogs were slaughtered because people believe that they brought the plague. They weren't wrong. But cats also killed rats, which were the plague carrying please, favorite hosts. And the Black Death stuck around this time it stayed in London, and came back every 10 years or so killing more and more. You're required to carry a white pole with you if you had infected family members to show that you had been exposed. Everyone knows about the bubonic plague, even though it's become mostly history now in the age of antibiotics. Though rare, the disease does still pop up from time to time. And it was certainly not the only plague. We're living in one now of course, but these are still not the only ones throughout our human history. And some are quite strange. Not at all is straightforward as a microbe wreaking havoc on human bodies. Join us as we add another entry into this our macabrepedia.

Matthew: 2:47

Hello and welcome to macabrepedia a marriage of true crime and the truly bizarre we are your hosts, Matthew and Marissa. And today I guess we're talking about plagues.

Marissa: 2:59

Well, we're actually going to be talking specifically about dancing plagues. But yes, there are so many plagues. I mean, we're in one which I don't feel like talking about because it's an everyday occurrence. Yeah,

Matthew: 3:10

I feel like to to my years of at least having this in the headlines of everyday news and watching body counts,

Marissa: 3:19

destroying let's just move on.

Matthew: 3:21

Let's talk about an older play.

Marissa: 3:23

Let's talk about something fun dancing play.

Matthew: 3:25

There you go. Fun play.

Marissa: 3:27

July 1518, an area that is now Strasbourg, France. Brow trophy area, walked out of her house and out into the street. She started tapping her foot swaying your hips. Before long, she was full on dancing in the street, for all kept dancing all evening and all night. Then the next day she kept dancing. And on to the next night. Frau trofeo danced for somewhere around five days until her feet began to bleed. But still she kept dancing. Day and night. She kept dancing. She didn't stop for anything. No breaks, no sleep. No sit down. Probably not even a bathroom break for autofair could not stop.

Matthew: 4:10

Well. I'm sure she took a bathroom break there's probably not a not one that was I'm sure she used the bathroom. I'm just actually she didn't raise the bathroom. I'm pretty sure she just did it in her in her downs. But this is also at a time when I don't even think like dancing was was dancing out in public was was was pretty sure was pretty frowned upon. This was like Footloose, illegal to dance.

Marissa: 4:35

Well, it wasn't illegal at the time. But that is something that they tried, actually multiple dancing plagues throughout history and one of them they did try to outlaw dancing to stop it. But of course it didn't

Matthew: 4:45

help. How do you get a Dancing Plague was proud doing? What cured Frau

Marissa: 4:53

actually I don't know Frau actually lived or not it's there's nothing that says either way. But anyway, other people joined her and soon Out of 30 to 40 people were dancing in the street. Accounts vary on the numbers, but up to 400 people may have joined her.

Matthew: 5:08

That's a very slow burn and flashmob.

Marissa: 5:12

It's probably pretty fast at the time now.

Matthew: 5:14

It's five days

Marissa: 5:16

she was there so little towns.

Matthew: 5:18

I mean, people were coming far and wide to come join her in dancing. Some

Marissa: 5:22

of these they did. Yeah. Like there's their way playing

Matthew: 5:25

dancer way over to her house.

Marissa: 5:27

Yes. People would fall down from exhaustion and they would continue to move on the ground. And then people started dying to begin with

Matthew: 5:37

sounds like a beacon in tongues kind of revival kind of thing.

Marissa: 5:42

Had to say the same vibe, maybe? I don't know. Well, the

Matthew: 5:45

dance on what snakes?

Marissa: 5:47

And there have been one of those churches but no, I

Matthew: 5:48

don't believe so. No, thanks. So,

Marissa: 5:51

to begin with, you need to know that the town of Strasburg at this time was absolute just like misery. Strasburg had four famines between 1492 and 1511. The price of bread was crazy high and people were starving, literally starving. Smallpox, syphilis, and leprosy abounded. The plague was still around, these people were pushed to their absolute limits, like we think we are sometimes but these guys were just living in just desperation. Now. This

Matthew: 6:21

was during that time where like, PR crops failed. It was like, Yeah, we're we're stretching like three, five years that were like,

Marissa: 6:28

Yeah, they were starving. They Yeah, they were starving. They had all these diseases. They had plot floods, they had just everything.

Matthew: 6:37

Locusts and but you know, sometimes you just got dance it out. Dancing,

Marissa: 6:42

and theories, right.

Matthew: 6:44

Sometimes you fucked his dance.

Marissa: 6:47

Yeah. I mean, some people were trying to figure out why they were doing this though, because people were just dancing along and they were pick up other people who would then start dancing. And like I said, not everybody lived close by. Some of them were like, from out of town. The city council decided to hire the local doctors to find out more about this. Physicians had that they had hot blood.

Matthew: 7:09

Mm hmm. hot blood.

Marissa: 7:12

They decided that bloodletting was a great prescription. Yeah,

Matthew: 7:16

that's gotta be hard to do Sony's dancing Exactly. Get leeches. Yeah. I

Marissa: 7:19

mean, they always tried to do bloodletting, right. But they they couldn't do it because these guys would not stop long enough to let them do it. I mean, there's they can't just like, you know, keep poking at him with a knife. While they're literally dancing. They're gonna kill them. But anyway, so then what? They figured that if they tired them out enough, they'd stop. So what do they prescribe? Weights? Weights?

Matthew: 7:43

I don't know. He's the entire amount. More dancing. Oh, yeah, I guess I guess that makes sense. Yeah, I figured the entire amount by waiting them down. Make them dance with

Marissa: 7:53

weights limited and think about that.

Matthew: 7:55

I mean, I don't I mean, does.

Marissa: 7:57

I wasn't gonna do I don't know.

Matthew: 7:58

I just make a bad luck.

Marissa: 8:00

It's a grain. They were starving what they have. I mean, water, I guess. I mean, you

Matthew: 8:04

can tell me they can eat to be heavy. Like you could give them a rock. Yeah, but that's where the term rock

Marissa: 8:12

is when you think they're gonna hold it. They're dancing, flailing arms?

Matthew: 8:18

I don't know. I feel I feel like if that was really what they would prescribe their creative enough people. They could just drop them all with carts and have them drive parts around. But

Marissa: 8:26

they thought they could just make them dance. They brought in a band to play music in the hopes that this would overwork the dancers by getting them all worked up. They even built a stage in the town square.

Matthew: 8:39

Okay, I feel like they're not taking this with the right level of severity at this point.

Marissa: 8:45

Yeah, they didn't know what to do. So I mean, did it work? As I said, some people did die. This was either from sheer exhaustion or heart attacks or strokes brought up upon brought upon by this. Nothing they did seem to work. So the dancing play kept going. But it did eventually peter out without explanation or warning. So nothing they did worked. But it just stopped. Huh? Yeah. They don't know why it started. They don't know why it stopped. So why did this happen? Seems pretty odd. There were a few contemporary accounts written around that time that said that these were both men and women who were dancing around in what seemed to be a state of unconsciousness. They were unable to control what they were doing. Those that seemed aware, though, they, they wanted to stop but they actually couldn't, they could not make themselves stop. Historians now have a few theories about what happened. One is that these people were just broken after so long suffering every day, day in and day out with just fear and anxiety as their constant companions, and the massive amount of stress and despair may have caused mass hysteria that caused them to start dancing and keep going until some died. The dancing part goes Because of the legend with St. Invictus, who was said to punish people by making them dance, so all of this going on with him thinking they were getting punished because they were living in hell. And then there's the sink that punishes people by making them dance. It could have caused this mass hysteria by making this this idea that they were paying for some sin form in their mind. Another theory is that they that there was a type of fungus that grows on Ryan other plants around it. This fungus

Matthew: 10:33

just turns you into werewolves.

Marissa: 10:35

Different fungus core now grows on rye, how much fungus there's multiple funguses fungi psycho

Matthew: 10:42

psilocybin, foam guys.

Marissa: 10:45

The fungus, which is called air got can cause ergotism and humans and other mammals. This can actually cause seizures, spasms and psychosis

Matthew: 10:55

and lycanthropy. Now,

Marissa: 10:59

so it's something that could possibly explain around us explain why some of the symptoms at least other theories attribute this behavior to encephalitis, epilepsy or typhus, others epilepsy. It's always epilepsy ate some skulls. Others suggest that they were dancing to try to relieve the stress of their days, as we said, and then they became euphoric. Yeah. And they couldn't come down from dancers. Hi. Yeah. Many years after the Dancing Plague of 1518, philosopher and physician Paracelsus said that it started because a woman did not want to do some chores that her husband asked her to do. Yeah, women are famously not gonna do chores around No, I

Matthew: 11:42

just think it's funny. It's like, this is this is what started like, musicals. You know, like when there's just like, spontaneous song and dance that breaks out like she was the pioneer to all this. Like, she was just like, all of a sudden, just like, fame. I'm gonna live forever.

Marissa: 12:00

Think about it this way. I mean, those types of musicals are just plagues. Really sad. Actually. People are gonna die because it can't stop.

Matthew: 12:13

Yeah, well, I mean, I don't I don't know if they mean it wasn't trying to bring it to like rent. But you know,

Marissa: 12:19

no, let's not talk about rent. Sad. What you just said it was a So whose

Matthew: 12:23

ago I was trying to put a happy spin on it good. I thought I was just saying, whatever.

Marissa: 12:28

Anyway, anyway, Paracelsus saying that was decades after the event. So he this she's just making this up. This is not even the only time that this has happened. And 1020 There were 18 people who danced on Christmas Eve at church or circuit service. They formed a ring by holding hands just called a ring dance of sin. Hmm. Yeah. There's a story here that says that the priest cursed them to dance for a year. And they did it until the next Christmas Eve when exhausted and repentant. They fell into a deep sleep, which some did not wake from. That's the story. So 1237 a bunch of kids started dancing and danced all the way from Erfurt to our to our instead Germany. It's a little bit over four hours, which is not that far. So I don't know why this is a Dancing Plague. Because these guys were just dancing for four hours. These teenagers were just dancing takes four

Matthew: 13:23

hours to walk there. Yeah, it probably takes longer to Prancer sighs Okay,

Marissa: 13:27

let's say maybe six hours.

Matthew: 13:29

I'm saying man say I mean, six hours of dancing. We should do that.

Marissa: 13:33

We are going to Germany we should Prancer sighs from what'd I say for Erfurt to our instead? Let's do it.

Matthew: 13:41

Oh, go to Germany for that I want to I am willing to do endurance activities anywhere in the world.

Marissa: 13:48

parenthesize that in 1278 200 people danced near the river moose in Germany might be saying that wrong. The bridge collapse though when they went over it because there were 200 people on this bridge in 1278. And the bridge was probably not constructed that well. So a lot of them died. Then 1374 Bunch of dancers held hands and danced in circles together until they fell down exhausted. This was demonic possession. This one took place a few years after one of the worst floods of the century. And that's kind of a theme here like a lot of these take place after some really awful event or series of events.

Matthew: 14:26

Well isn't even Ring around the rosie is a black plague.

Marissa: 14:31

Uzis Ashes, ashes we all fall down. Yeah, it's about the plague doctors because they had like, what did they have popery frozen. There.

Matthew: 14:41

That's what those beaks were but not just not just the doctors, but people believe that. It was through a miasma that it was the air that the stinking festering air was what was causing the plague. So they believe that if you scented the air that it wouldn't affect you. So that's where the pocketful of posies

Marissa: 14:59

and that's the theory by also behind them stuffing the beaks of the head on with that.

Matthew: 15:03

Pause. I mean, it's trying to smell smelled like shit. But, but yeah, so some plagues, so plagues that are not dancing plagues, spawn, dancing regardless. Anyway.

Marissa: 15:17

They thought about a legend at the time and they decided to act on it. As I said this saint Victus Christian saint Saint Victus could curse people they didn't like by making them dance. So some of them would go to a shrine, and that would cure the disease. They would pray to Him. And that would cure the dancing sickness. Oh, good, which also kind of lends itself to the the mental theory?

Matthew: 15:42

Definitely, but definitely not. Okay. Anthropy.

Marissa: 15:46

Many of these come on the heels of some of great periods of darkness. As I said, the 1374 Dancing sickness happened shortly after a bout of the Great Plague wreaking havoc. There's a bit of variety in them, too. Sometimes people like I said, there are actually many of these dancing plagues. Sometimes people would dance up or dress to dress up and wear flower crowns. So they would dress for the occasion. Sometimes they'd scream, they'd laugh, they'd sing while they were dancing. I can imagine the screaming would just be just a horror show people just dancing and flailing in the street screaming.

Matthew: 16:24

Well, yeah, but I mean, you know, you have the security of the masses at that point to like, to get in on it. And you know, really? Yeah, really just do it, you know, cut loose a little bit and then just be like, oh, and I'm cured. Yeah, and then go back to come back and dance around screaming dancing, making costumes and just you know, literally just dancing it out and then just be like, alright, you know, you know those days we just want to scream into the void. Yeah, they were doing it with a bunch of people right?

Marissa: 16:57

Why not? Make sure screaming into the void a lot less weird. Exactly. That's something other times they would have sex with each other on display.

Matthew: 17:05

Yeah, that guy weird. Yep. So release I suppose. Or this is my my Horny Goat dancing.

Marissa: 17:14

Yeah. Or they'd get violent with each other which is also you know, a former police I guess if you're hitting something,

Matthew: 17:20

though sound like they're just excuses to Yeah, I mean, to get to get book while

Marissa: 17:24

it's specifically said that they would hit somebody if they refuse to start dancing.

Matthew: 17:28

seems like an odd way to transmitted a plague.

Marissa: 17:32

You will dance you will

Matthew: 17:34

you will get infected. Or I'll suck you.

Marissa: 17:37

And sometimes it was just one person dancing. Well, that a Dancing Plague though? Is that somebody just dancing? Nope. It was just somebody dancing. Well, that's kind of what I got from it. So I don't know. So for this macabrepedia short, we do have a sponsor.

Matthew: 17:59

Yeah, I think the sponsor for this one. There was much rejoicing.

Marissa: 18:06

How's the light at the end of the tunnel? No, not the one you see when you die. But the one that shows you that even in a year or two or three of despair, there will always be something on the horizon that was made brighter by the darkness that you've been through. This past year or two has been hard for most but good times are coming. Take the chances you're given but don't dwell on the ones you didn't take. Choose the happy. Sometimes it's hard to see but it's certainly always there. Our sponsor the light at the end of the tunnel.

Matthew: 18:41

Yay. Also, as always, hopefully we have a few more coming in here pretty soon. But check out our show notes where you can find our affiliate links one of which of course is our podcast host Buzzsprout. And if you use the link and sign up for a paid plan, it does help out macabrepedia as well as get you a $20 amazon gift card. But sprout is a great hosting platform with tons of the time saving and easy features that you hear me talk about in every one of these. They can really help you make make a project quickly and easily. And they also help you reach an audience and provides you easy ways to get sponsors and affiliates. Some of them are instantaneous like Buzzsprout and they do get you actual money not just the the funds ease that we do here and the beginning of our sponsorships of real sponsors. They have real sponsors but go check it out. They do have free plans also but with that with the paid plan you do get the $20 amazon gift card and that helps out macabrepedia. So if you think about starting a podcast checkout Buzzsprout and the other affiliate links had may or may not be below

Marissa: 19:55

podcasting is only a little bit stressful. It's pretty fun. Or at least it's fun once it's done

Matthew: 20:00

Now let's boogie

Marissa: 20:08

and that is our macabrepedia short on really the Dancing Plague but likes in general, though there is a ton more to talk about. It's just that it's a very topical subject right now I don't want to get into though.

Matthew: 20:24

Yeah to see Tec nine pigs. Yeah.

Marissa: 20:25

So that's why I chose the Dancing Plague. This week's episode was a little bit shorter than normal because of time constraints that we have here at macabrepedia headquarters. But once we get back to the norm, we'll be back to our normal schedule. So if you want to reach out to us, we're active on Twitter and Facebook at macabrepedia.

Matthew: 20:50

You can also reach us on Instagram at macabrepediapod as well as our email macabrepediapod@gmail.com in the show notes in the show notes, but as always, thank you for listening and join us next week as we add another entry into this our PDF